Printer Friendly
The Free Library
19,573,962 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

`Everybody can go to college'.


Children who would never have considered higher education higher education

Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art.
 are having their sights raised by a programme sponsored by the colleges in Claremont, South California. Each year `I'm Going to College' Day gives fourth graders (eight- and nine-year-olds) from a low-income area in a nearby town a chance to sample college life. I am one of the volunteers who help to staff the event.

The schools selected are those with students from low-income or minority families, where few parents have gone to college. Last year it was the turn of Upland Upland, city (1990 pop. 63,374), San Bernardino co., S Calif., in a citrus-fruit region at the foot of the San Gabriel Mts.; inc. 1906. Citrus fruits and grapes are packed and processed in the city. Paint, orchard heaters, auto parts, and feed products are also made.  Elementary. The children who arrived at college in buses on 6 November looked much like the rest of us in Southern California--Asian-, Latino-, Anglo-, African-American and many whose ancestry an·ces·try  
n. pl. an·ces·tries
1. Ancestral descent or lineage.

2. Ancestors considered as a group.



[Middle English auncestrie, alteration (influenced by
 was thoroughly polyglot pol·y·glot  
adj.
Speaking, writing, written in, or composed of several languages.

n.
1. A person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of several languages.

2.
.

For five weeks before `I'm Going to College' Day, student interns This article or section is written like an .
Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view.
Mark blatant advertising for , using .
 from Claremont's five colleges--Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer and Harvey Mudd--had visited the school every week. They helped the kids to fill out sample college entry and financial aid applications. One boy wrote that he would qualify for aid because he was `good at math and will work hard'.

The day began with an assembly at which the kids stood up and said, `I'm a future California leader.' Then they were given ID cards, T-shirts, pens, notebooks and pretend money good for two paperbacks from the `bookstore'. When they got on the buses to go home, they each received a dictionary (too heavy to carry all day!).

Through the morning the kids attended sample lectures. The science faculty came up with all kinds of experiments that smoked and flashed colours and generally commanded attention.

One psychology professor illustrated his talk about motivation by offering the kids first a dime and then a quarter if they would take a balloon balloon, lighter-than-air craft without a propulsion system, lifted by inflation of one or more containers with a gas lighter than air or with heated air. During flight, altitude may be gained by discarding ballast (e.g.  and risk having it blow up in their faces.

The first child to take a dime and have a balloon pop in her face wouldn't bite again until the professor raised the ante to a quarter. Interwoven in·ter·weave  
v. in·ter·wove , in·ter·wo·ven , inter·weav·ing, inter·weaves

v.tr.
1. To weave together.

2. To blend together; intermix.

v.intr.
 into his patter pat·ter 1  
v. pat·tered, pat·ter·ing, pat·ters

v.intr.
1. To make a quick succession of light soft tapping sounds: Rain pattered steadily against the glass.
 was the message that before you try drugs weigh carefully the price you may be paying. It was so subtle that I didn't get it until I realized the kids did!

At 1997's `I'm Going to College' Day one of the smaller boys marched out to the centre of the circle of over 100 fourth graders, put his hands on his hips and said, `Today I learned that everybody can go to college.' Who could doubt he'd make it?

The programme started in 1990--and now its first `graduate' has applied for college admission.
COPYRIGHT 1999 For A Change
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1999, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Author:Keen, Viola
Publication:For A Change
Date:Apr 1, 1999
Words:425
Previous Article:Getting beneath the frail cloak of colour.
Next Article:School for Salboni.



Related Articles
All about Yve Adam.
SECOND CHANCE; HOURIGAN STARTING OVER AT COC.
GRADUATES ATTEST TO VALUE OF VALLEY COLLEGE.
MASTER'S COLLEGE NOTEBOOK: HOOP TEAMS POINTING TO NEW SEASON TIPOFF.
CANYONS' STOCK IS RISING; COUGARS TRY TO AVOID LETDOWN VS. SANTA BARBARA.
USC POUNDS ARIZONA STATE : USC 12, ARIZONA ST. 3.
SATELLITE CAMPUS MATCHES CSUN'S BEST IN COZY SETTING : AREA ABLE TO SUSTAIN UNIVERSITY.
Titans take two region crowns.
No slackers, students stand up to vote.

Terms of use | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles