My freshman daughter has indicated her desire to become an oncology nurse. She is a good student with a good head on her shoulders. She was told by her adviser to take a 100 level Finite Math class, as it is required for a degree in nursing. So she registered and bought the books and attended class. On the first day her professor told the class that 75% of them would fail and have to retake the class. Her confidence in math is low anyway, and being told she would fail, of course put doubt in her impressionable mind. She said she was already struggling the first week and it was math that was unfamiliar to her. So, she dropped the class and received no refund in tuition. An expensive lesson that cost her confidence and money.
This is a weed out class. I just became aware of this college policy to require professors to intentionally make sure students fail when my DH called today after listening to Kevin Walter on True Wealth Radio. Unfortunately, I will have to wait for a month until the archive of today's show is on the website so I can have a listen. My DH described our daughter and her nightmare math class to a tee. Weed out classes are introductory classes that are intentionally made exceptionally challenging. Often these classes are graded on a curve and set up so that a certain percentage of students must fail.
"In almost every major, especially high paying ones, there are weed out classes designed to get rid of you. There are usually 3-5 weed out classes per major. What happens is the school will pick the most difficult class in the major (usually). Then, in addition, the school will make a policy that only a few students may receive a good grade. The university will make another policy that states to advance you will need to have a good grade in these select classes. What happens is that a lot of poor performing students change majors to something easier. Anyone want a low paying low standardized degree?"
The college claims that the first two years of general education requirements are designed to make students more "well-rounded." According to the college catalog, Finite Math meets the general education "reasoning" requirement. Really, though, any college's "reasoning" centers around liberal indoctrination. With these "weed out" classes in place, the school has a hold on your child's mind for a longer period as a result of having to retake all these bogus classes, and a hold of your pocketbook.
In my University 101 Kool Aid post, I reveal how the colleges are working hard on the very first week of class to grab your child's mind to put a progressive leftwing liberal theology worldview into their mindset. I want our students to be able to reason with lucid discernment, and not socialist thinking. Students need to be taught how to look at information from both sides, and then logically discern the truth, and not be afraid to speak the truth that political correctness has silenced. Isn't that what any intelligent person, college educated or not, does?
I remember Fininte Math. I lasted two weeks. Fortunately, I had other options for my major... the linguistics class that actually related to my language major that you could only take as a senior and was only offered every OTHER year (not MY senior year, obviously), and Formal Logic, which I actually earned an A in, even though the whole thing was really propositional calculus (if I'd KNOWN that I would have found it difficult. Formal Logic was considered "the other flunk out course." Does you daughter have other options for fulfilling that requirement? Or can she get the text and study it with a tutor for a summer or semester prior to taking the course again?
ReplyDeleteXa Lynn
Xa Lynn,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if she has other options to fulfill the requirement, but we will sure look into that and find out. I also had required courses that were of course only offered once a year, or every other year like you, designed to hold onto you longer. I have never even heard of Formal Logic, sounds like it probably wasn't logical, LOL. I failed Statistics with a D (C required) and hated every minute of that class.
Sounds like a right wing republican agenda, certainly not a liberal one.
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