All schools have students with inadequate backgrounds. Not all are related to socio-economic backgrounds, in my opinion. I see many students with a desire to work and to learn, but few skills or habits that help them succeed. Many have no real habit of looking beyond the page that is before them. They do not look up words they don't know. They do not take time to put terms or concepts into groups of similar items. They do not know how to compare and contrast terms and concepts. Writing skills are often lower than some grammar school student's skills. I am often faced with trying to teach learning skills on the fly and then I run out of time for the substantive materials. I always have a Plan B for the substantive materials, but I seem to get tripped up by other factors that should have been resolved long before the student enrolled in college. This is not a shot at my school. I see this at every school, even elite post-secondary institutions. It is easy to anticipate this problem. It is difficult to resolve it.