Economics professor Larry J. Sechrest of Sul Ross State University is in hot water for his contention that "the students at Sul Ross, and more generally, the long-term residents of the entire area, are appallingly ignorant, irrational, anti-intellectual, and, well, . . . just plain stupid":
In the fall of 2002, his article said, "42 percent of our freshmen had to take remedial classes in reading, writing, or math just to meet the state's ridiculously low standard of 'competence'...The taxpayers of Texas have already paid for these kids to learn English and math in middle school, then again in high school, much of which is a review of what they were supposed to have absorbed in previous years"...
The article, copied and passed around by the hundreds, led to two anonymous death threats on Dr. Sechrest's office phone, scores of obscene phone calls in the middle of the night, eggs tossed at his home and windows smashed on a car parked outside his house.
Hmm. Given that all the hysterical reaction seems to be either verbal or violent, can I conclude from the lack of well-written, correctly-spelled death-threat letters that Dr. Sechrest might be correct? His detractors really can't write properly.
Dr. Sechrest, 57, a burly, gray-bearded man, said: "I did not go one step out of my way to throw this in people's faces. Am I going to apologize for it? No. But I never intended to insult them."
He acknowledged he felt frustrated because the Sul Ross president, Dr. R. Vic Morgan, and other university administrators have not, in his opinion, done enough to raise academic standards.
"We're not achieving very much in the way of education," said Dr. Sechrest, a tenured professor who has taught at the university for 13 years. "Half the teachers in my department don't give final tests, so that means they just take an extra week off. Sul Ross does not have top-flight people. There's always pressure on to let kids slide."
Interestingly, some positve reactions to Dr. Sechrest's statements have begun to surface:
Last week Dr. Sechrest said he had begun to receive more positive e-mail and phone calls. He noted in particular an e-mail message from a former student.
"As I read your article I found myself laughing out loud and saying things like 'amen' and 'true,' " the former student wrote. "At the same time I felt somewhat guilty because it really did offend people I really care about. There's no denying these are legitimate concerns. The lack of interest in anything beyond Brewster County lines also baffled me."
Dissecting Leftism, who provided the link to this story, notes that even Harvard is in the business of remedial classes:
Harvard gets the cream of U.S. High School graduates so at least those students should be 100% as educated as you can get -- right? Wrong! One of my readers writes that the reality is much, much worse than that:
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I attended Harvard in the early 80's and knew my way around campus fairly well, and was aware of all the academic programs they offered. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that the University has an active "remedial English" program that at least 20% of incoming freshmen are required to use. Larger minority enrollment, and foreign students are not driving this program, all students seem to be equal offenders. Harvard's black student body have SAT scores within 90 points of their white and Asian peers...
Harvard will not tell you they have this program; and it has a fancy name to hide its purpose, but it is a Community College style remedial English program.
It is a full remedial program with instruction in spelling, grammar, and the lost art of essay writing. From what I understand, essay skills -- or the lack of them -- is what tipped the University off to these problems.
This program is housed under the Freshman Student Union. They use this like a referral system.... they send the kids to the Union, and then they get moved into this informal, formal program.
There is a whitewash of the program here asserting that it is NOT a remedial program but even that does not tell the whole story. The really bad students are funnelled through there to even a more simplified program.
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Can anyone now deny that vouchers are the only hope for the U.S. school system?
Posted by kswygert at February 19, 2004 11:40 AM