Can Your Child Meet the College Challenge?

By Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D

Many a parent worries about his or her child getting in to college. Then, the worry becomes, "Can my child get out of college?" In other words, is the child sufficiently prepared to handle the college curriculum for four years and wind up with an undergraduate degree?

Unfortunately, in all too many cases, the answer to both questions is a resounding no. In her blog of October 19. 2010 "Cutting Shakespeare for Stephanie Meyer,"  author Stephanie Porowski bemoans the fact that students are not being challenged. In fact the average readability for the top 40 texts read by high school students shows those texts are on a middle school level!

What's a parent to do?

You know what the classics are.  At Think Tutoring, so do we. In fact, when we work with high school students to improve their reading ability, we use challenging material. Our tutors are not afraid of high standards. And for those students who accept the challenge and complete the program, there is an average 1.5 grade level improvement and an average reading speed of 80 words a minute.

These results are obtained by studying the classics from authors such as Mary Shelly and Edgar Allen Poe. They are more challenging, of course, than reading about vampires, but colleges expect incoming students to be able to handle such challenges.

In addition to giving your child the opportunity to work with our highly trained tutors, you can encourage your child to read the classics on his own, if his school curriculum has more Meyer than Melville. You may wish to start with smaller books or even passages from the longer ones. (The Internet will easily provide lists of the greatest books ever written.) As you discuss the passages (and, in time, the books in their entirety), try to draw parallels to situations facing us today.

Another option: you can always work with your child's school in the hope the English teachers will offer more classics. After all, you have your child's future to think about and that future, ideally, will not include having her take remedial classes once she gets to college.

Football great Terry Bradshaw acknowledges that "when you've got something to prove, there's nothing greater than a challenge ." Your child will need to prove to his college professors that she can meet their academic challenges. Start challenging her today in preparation.

The Think Tutoring High School Reading Program provides students in the Florham Park area, which includes East Hanover, Whippany, Morristown, Livingston and Madison, with a challenging, literary-rich curriculum, expertly delivered by state-certified teachers.  Call 973-593-0050 to learn more.