Quote:
Originally Posted by berettafan
Got through a season of it. Wonder who's out there holding hands of non athlete students.
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The honest answer to that question is no one. That's why graduation rates are so low for students in general, and the four year graduation rate is almost a mirage - for middle class kids with a built in safety net. The percentage of kids who start at a community college and end up graduating from a 4 year college within 6 years (the usual benchmark) is something like 5 percent. There was a damning article in The Atlantic a year or so ago that pointed out that colleges are perfectly organized to maximize student admission and spend almost no resources helping kids navigate the system and make progress in their academic journey. Kids whose parents graduated from college can show a motivated student the tricks necessary to get through any school. Kids who were unprepared from the start get left behind like road kill once their student loan check clears.
The kids in Last Chance U are at Last Chance U because they were unprepared and didn't make it the first time around. Its so sad because they're failing not just because they don't know how to follow the rules to be successful, they're unaware there are rules that need to be followed to become successful. No one is teaching them the rules or how to get ahead in life.
I went to a tiny state school with a rural and largely blue collar student body. I took a class on general study habits and academic success, speech, business communications, and many other classes where part of the curriculum was to teach students how to present themselves, from the way we spoke and dressed to etiquette, and general life skills and how to succeed in a corporation. It made a huge difference in my life. I think of my experience and training as I watch students like the ones in Last Chance.