Blog: Confessions of a Community College Dean Writing Students Off “Some seeds are meant to spawn taller plants. That is the way of things.” - Fredrik deBoer Most of us who came up through the reverse-funnel of competitive admissions internalized some version of what Fredrik deBoer wrote about in the Chronicle this week. It’s the idea that some people have academic talent and some just don’t, and that beyond a certain point, pouring resources into helping those that don’t is simply throwing money down a rat hole. At each stage of the tracking and winnowing process, the story goes, perspicacious institutions rightly separate the wheat from the chaff, the better to spend precious resources on those who are most able to thrive. As for the rest, well, they’ll do what they’ll do. It’s a frustrating argument because it’s closed. How do you know who has what it takes? They succeed. Why don’t some students succeed? Because they don’t have what it takes. Easy!
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