I'm going to be the unpopular voice in the room here, but as someone who has worked my ass off my entire life, a 1030 SAT and 3.5 in high school hardly seems like "acing" anything. In fact, that barely seems mediocre. College is a whole different ball game and it's much harder. I've seen kids with 800 math SATs and 4.0s in hs fail intro math in college. Why can't people accept that sometimes things are just hard?
You're right and the article eventually gets to that but not before using some socioeconomic sizzle.
To recap, the article opens with a URM female getting shell-shocked in her first semester. She's overwhelmed and sinking. The author then jumps into broad socioeconomic analysis of outcomes. Fast forward 23 pages (!!!) in the article, and a re-direction to the actual success factors (Grit™)...you learn that she made it through the fall with a B+ in Stat and a reasonable 3.0 freshman GPA. I'm happy she turned the corner, but I...felt misled >_<.
Though I really enjoyed Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed, I take issue with his claim:
It is only students facing the particular fears and anxieties and experiences of exclusion that come with being a minority — whether by race or by class — who are susceptible to this problem. Those students often misinterpret temporary setbacks as a permanent indication that they can’t succeed or don’t belong at U.T.
It's not limited to minorities and women...UT's no joke -- like many colleges. The honors programs (there are many at UT) are lights out. It's a humbling experience, and it's not surprising to hear that the article's poster-child, who "never had to study for math tests [in high school and] aced them all without really trying" got pooped on freshman year. I don't have the numbers but plenty of kids, regardless of URM status, got/get their bell rung in UT freshman courses.
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[ 36.8 ms ] story [ 2037 ms ] threadTo recap, the article opens with a URM female getting shell-shocked in her first semester. She's overwhelmed and sinking. The author then jumps into broad socioeconomic analysis of outcomes. Fast forward 23 pages (!!!) in the article, and a re-direction to the actual success factors (Grit™)...you learn that she made it through the fall with a B+ in Stat and a reasonable 3.0 freshman GPA. I'm happy she turned the corner, but I...felt misled >_<.
Though I really enjoyed Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed, I take issue with his claim:
It is only students facing the particular fears and anxieties and experiences of exclusion that come with being a minority — whether by race or by class — who are susceptible to this problem. Those students often misinterpret temporary setbacks as a permanent indication that they can’t succeed or don’t belong at U.T.
It's not limited to minorities and women...UT's no joke -- like many colleges. The honors programs (there are many at UT) are lights out. It's a humbling experience, and it's not surprising to hear that the article's poster-child, who "never had to study for math tests [in high school and] aced them all without really trying" got pooped on freshman year. I don't have the numbers but plenty of kids, regardless of URM status, got/get their bell rung in UT freshman courses.