how young is too young?
Early College High School is an idea that is being made into a reality by the Chico Unified School District in collaboration with Butte Community College. I had vaguely heard about a partnership between the school district and Butte College that was to provide vocational technical programs to high school students. It sounded like a good idea and I recently corresponded briefly with both Kelly Staley, the interim district superintendent, as well as Sara Simmons, the director for innovative programs. What I found out is that this idea is much further along in development than I knew.
Ms. Simmons informed me that they hope to start with an initial class of 9th graders next fall (2008). These students will be transported to and educated on the campus of Butte College. The intention is to provide them with a high school education and two years of college within a five year program. Each student will have the opportunity to either graduate with an Associate’s Degree in addition to their high school diploma or will be eligible to transfer into a four year college/ university as a junior. The target students for this program are to be those presently under-represented in post-secondary education, i.e. first generation college students, economically disadvantaged or minority students.
My first reaction to this was: what a great idea! By the time a student is 18 or 19 years old they will either have a viable skill that will enable them to get and keep a decent job or will be two years away from a bachelor’s degree. As a parent, this sounds especially good. Imagine the savings on college fees and tuition! Imagine a child who can permanently provide for him or herself at age 19! But then my cynicism kicks in.
There has been story after story about the busyness of childhood. About the stress to which our young children are subjected by being relentlessly shuttled from soccer to kung fu to music lessons to tutoring to drama class, etc. (OK, I'm guilty too). About the loss of the opportunity for children to make discoveries of their own while they engage in play which is the work of childhood. So I wonder what effect this effort to push teenagers even more quickly along the continuum will have. Will it have a dampening effect on their creativity and exploration of the world? How will it effect their social development? Will they become more precocious than they already are or will it have the opposite effect of pushing them into a more isolated stance because their peer group is so limited?
These are all concerning questions. Having raised two children to adulthood with one more to go, I am very concerned about children becoming fodder for an experimental program. I’ve seen this happen with year round school, several mathematics curriculums and other less notable issues. It seems like by the time the school district gets around to evaluating the effects of their programmatic decisions the education of years-worth of students has already been impacted. And, if the program is found to be a failure, the ill-equipped students are the ones who suffer the most serious consequences.