I'd like to get some opinions. Do you think colleges should be offering remedial English or Basic English classes? I'll start. I do not. If students are illiterate, they should not be in college. Those deficiencies should be addressed prior to college.
... that makes no sense. College's can't send students back in a time machine. Colleges meet the needs of members of their COMMUNITY, they're open enrollment for credit and non-credit learning. Just for fun, I pulled the state board's mission statements for IL and NC (my home states) and found they are pretty similar in their mission. Illinois: Illinois community colleges share a common mission. They prepare people for college, for transfer to other colleges or universities, and for good paying jobs that demand high skills. Community colleges also provide adult, literacy, and continuing education and services. What makes each college unique is how the college responds to the communities it serves. North Carolina: The mission of the North Carolina Community College System is to open the door to high-quality, accessible educational opportunities that minimize barriers to postsecondary education, maximize student success, develop a globally and multi-culturally competent workforce, and improve the lives and well-being of individuals by providing: 1) Education, training and retraining for the workforce including basic skills and literacy education, occupational and pre-baccalaureate programs. 2) Support for economic development through services to and in partnership with business and industry and in collaboration with the University of North Carolina System and private colleges and universities. 3) Services to communities and individuals which improve the quality of life. From what I've found, I'm pretty sure that providing remedial English is exactly what they're there for.
Two points: 1) There's a big difference between needing to brush up on your language skills and being illiterate. 2) If a person did not do very well in high school and then later they become motivated to return to school you would condemn them forever because you think they should have taken care of these things in high school? I find this attitude to be curiously harsh especially considering your own background.
I am OK with remedial classes, especially for those who have taken a while off from school and are getting back into the college mindset. I do occasionally wonder why somebody straight out of high school needs them but that is a very different issue.
I speak from my experience as a TA at Ashford U. I would say that 75% of the students I had there should not have been in college. They could not write a coherent, grammatically correct sentence. They could not spell. They were barely literate. And yet there they were, in English Comp, English Lit, psychology, and other classes. One reason Ashford got in trouble was by admitting such students. When the accreditors clamped down on them, they had to tighten up on admissions. When they did, the need for TAs lessened, and they summarily dismissed them (us). Students who are illiterate should not be let out of high school with a diploma, let alone get admitted to college. But I'm not surprised that this happens; the dollar is more important than a dumbed-down, illiterate society, right? God forbid that standards be established and enforced.
Standards have been established, they're just not the ones that you like. Maybe you're in the wrong job.
Though harsh, I have to agree with Kizmet. I've spent 2 decades in the community college, and nothing ticks me off more than teachers/instructors complaining about their students. Not a match - get out of teaching. Oh, I guess a tie for first place is chefs complaining about their customers, but that's another day. Community colleges (which are NOT the same as Ashford where Michael works, we're mixing apples and oranges) serve the community. The help to bring literacy to the community. The exact opposite of Michael's assertion "the dollar is more important than a dumbed-down, illiterate society, right? God forbid that standards be established and enforced." Huh? So, you have a block of individuals in your community that need AND SEEK self-improvement, but by denying them access you elevate some standard? What standard? I like Airtorn's question about why a high school grad needs remedial English, that's also another day, but an valid question.
