Sunday, November 16, 2008

Accelerated College Entry? Not a Good Idea.

Okay, so according to Time Magazine, kids should be ready to go to college by 16 years old (thanks to the Last Psychiatrist for the link). My answer is, "Are you crazy or just not in touch with reality?"

Let me get this straight, a state that has special requirements on allowing teens under 18 to drive is considering putting them in charge of their lives at an earlier age? This doesn't make sense from a logic stand point. I mean, if you can't trust them on the road to make good decisions, how can you expect them to decide THE REST OF THEIR LIVES at age 16? And make no mistake, choosing to go to a college at age 16 will affect the rest of their life.

In the article, they keep talking about trying to emulate European and Asian countries. This would be fine, except for the fact that many Europeans and Asians want to come to our universities because we have the best universities in the world. Why weaken our universities with an unprepared populace, when instead we should be talking about how to address the concerns that cause students to "slide through high school."

We should be working to make high school challenging for everyone.