That very first semester of college feels both the most exciting and the most stressful. You’re surrounded by new people, finally learning what you want to learn, and getting involved in what interests you. But when college starts, a lot of students are unprepared. They don’t know how to handle the heavy courseloads, or they don’t know that their syllabi will be the key to success.
High school is supposed to prepare us, right? Well, you would think that, but the reality is very different. Average high school curriculums teach math equations to solve for numbers, but not how to solve world issues. They teach you how to fit like a cog in a machine, but not how to be uniquely yourself. They tell you to remember history in the eyes of the winners and to believe Western ideals are the best in the world. Most schools just give students repetitive homework that doesn’t expand on their thinking, a common skill needed for college. They fail to prepare students for heavy discussion-based classes in college, where students need to be able to discuss deeper themes and ideas beyond the surface. Schools often censor many important themes like racism, religion, and even some of the common language at the time of the book’s writing.
That is, unless you graduated from a school that uses classical strategies to educate. I went to one of these schools; a school with amazing teachers who were knowledgeable about the subjects they taught, an administration that loved and respected all students and teachers, and on top of it all, an executive director who set the tone for the entire school.
What is Classical Education?
My school, Addenbrooke Classical Academy in the Colorado Metro Area, set me up for the most successful transition from high school to college. Addenbrooke uses a classical framework to teach its students, based on the methods of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hebrews.
At Addenbrooke, I was heavily involved in school organizations and sports while also experiencing concurrent enrollment, letting me put a lot on my plate and learn time management skills. I studied material that most schools refuse to teach, things like… (insert dun dun duuun! noise…) banned books! My junior year American Literature class was entirely centered on banned books, including classics like The Scarlet Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Some people see these stories as vulgar or inappropriate, but schools with classical curriculums aren’t afraid to teach these stories. If we never learn the dark side, we are bound to repeat it, and my school knew that. They faced it head-on by making their mission to teach the students how to think, not what to think. And it was all made possible by Ric Netzer and the amazing staff and administration he has kept.
Now, how does this apply to college? Simply by how prepared it made me. I started my first semester as a true college student fully ready for the courseload. I knew that my teachers and parents wouldn’t remind me to do my homework. I knew it would be on me, and only me.
I also learned from my concurrent enrollment classes that syllabi are everything. I can’t emphasize that enough. Those things carry every due date for anything and everything for the entire semester. In high school, syllabi were probably just papers you scanned, signed, and turned in, but that isn’t the case in college. Syllabi have everything you need to succeed in the next 16 weeks of classes. From my personal experience, having a running to-do list, putting due dates in the calendar, and keeping a color-coded spreadsheet for the entire semester, all seen in one place, has helped me prepare for the rest of the semester. At the beginning of each semester, I set aside an hour or so to put all my assignments in a spreadsheet by class and sort it by due date using Google Sheets. I also keep a sticky note on my computer of my weekly assignments and projects.
To make a long story short, 8 years at ACA made me the most prepared I could be for the world of education ahead. College is no joke, and high schools should prepare their students like classical education schools, specifically Addenbrooke Classical Academy, prepared me.