2008 Woodie Awards
Is a college degree a right or a privilege?
Silhouette Staff
Issue date: 2/5/04 Section: Opinion
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Here at Garden City Community College we guarantee a college degree. Is this the latest catch phrase?
A college degree is a privilege, not a right, but it seems anyone willing to pay tuition and attend classes is guaranteed to receive a diploma.
As we have passed through the many obstacles of education; grade school, middle school, high school to college, we are taught that not just anyone is college material. It takes a dedicated individual to receive a degree. We feel the standards are not the same as they once were.
How does a person acquire all the necessary credits to obtain an associates degree without being able to speak English? Yes, there are tutoring programs and translators, but if a person cannot follow a lecture or read quizzes, how did they make it through so many other courses with that communication barrier?
It is a difficult decision that instructors have to make, but it is a decision that must be made and it is something that must be dealt with. A person that does not possess the necessary skills to obtain a college degree, does not have the skills to be released into the job market claiming they have a college degree.
Is it our lovely high school system now haunting us? Did these individuals fall into the potholes of education? Seems that the high school level of education has not met its standards. If a teacher does not approve of or like a student is that student passed just so he or she is out of that teacher's hair? Where did the level of teaching and learning go?
Perhaps some of these students that are so far behind in educational skills were dropouts. Maybe some students went on and received their G.E.D., which is the equivalent of a high school degree, but it teaches the essentials. This would definitely affect your skills needed to perform on a college level.
Everyone deserves a chance to earn a college degree. What everyone does not deserve is a degree with out working for it. It is a privilege to go to college and receive a degree if you put forth the effort to earn that degree. There are no handouts in life.
You must become motivated and determined that your going to get that degree, no matter what it takes.If you are lacking the skills to achieve in college simply slow down and take refresher courses.There is no shame in starting out slow.