I was much like Ms. Brooks, and I was really lucky to have teachers like she did (and end up on the AP track like she did). But even then, ten to fifteen years ago, I saw that there was a big difference between what we learned and what the rest of our classmates walked away with.
I’m not one of those “not everyone needs to go to college” folks. But universities need to lead the way here with stricter standards instead of relaxing them to boost enrollment and bring in more tuition dollars, leaving overworked adjuncts teaching comp classes to mop up the mess. Writing is an essential skill, the backbone of education and key to professional success, and four-year universities have no business even admitting people who cannot write clearly, cite sources, and avoid plagiarism while conveying the ideas of others.
Not only that, but we need to take a hard look at why schools are failing and how someone can get to college without this basic skill. There’s been a lot of talk in many states and state legislatures this year about teachers. We know they’re underpaid and can only do so much, that parents need to be more involved and there’s only so much you can ask of a single mother working two jobs to keep the lights on, et cetera.
But here’s what’s largely gone unsaid:
For decades (centuries?), teaching was largely women’s work. It was underpaid, and that was something we as a society could get away with because what else were women going to do? Well, in the last few decades, the best and the brightest women have a lot more choices.
We are paying the price now for underpaying teachers for years because it was “women’s work.”