Barry Westling

Hi Stephanie:
I have experienced much of the same comments you describe. Depending, I'll usually reinforce they've paid for an com-plete education, and the general education, science, and humanities are part of the complete educational experience. I also try to reference it back to the profession they're training for, and to imply these classes will contribute to being better, more informed workers.

Regards, Barry

Stephanie Ream

I teach English, and in a career college we get complaints a lot that English is just there to get more money ("Why do we have to take this class?"). Students who have been out of school for awhile can get frustrated with the course very quickly; no one has judged their grammar or writing in awhile, and often they aren't practicing the skills. We also get the opposite--students directly out of high school who feel they have already covered the skills entirely and there is nothing more to learn. Pretesting can help with both groups. We currently have a developmental class in place, so students are screened before reaching the first English course, but beginning the class with a sort of pretest (in English, this is often an in-class writing assignment) can help me find what fundamentals I need to address. Or, for those students who feel they know it all, pretesting can tell me if they actually are skilled, and allow me to add more complex material or focus on higher level skills. Either way, pretesting can make the course feel like less of a "waste of their time."