Returning to the US after 12 years of living abroad was well, an interesting experience. Given that much of what I knew about American culture was what I saw on television, you can imagine that this would create some very interesting situations. Many of those will be the topic of later postings. Needless to say, my initial approach to my college experience was let us say, naïve.
I found the personnel in the counseling office to be less that helpful. For that reason I will not betray the identity of that particular institution of higher education. Perhaps what I’m about to say will help those in need, like I myself once was.
I spend my childhood in Australia, and those reasons will be the topic of a later posting. Suffice to say, education in Australia was very different than that of the US. We did not have GPAs; we did not have transcripts. There were no A through E (or whatever letter we’re up to) requirements or general education patterns. Everyone automatically did what was required and no one had a choice not to. We took our tenth grade leaving certificate or twelfth grade higher school certificate with us to prove that we actually went to school.
That brings me to my first experience with an American college. I was asked for my high school GPA. Since I did not know what a Grade Point Average was, I asked the friendly person behind the front desk what that was.
The look that I got was one as if I had large green lumps sprouting on my face. I repeated my question, “What is a GPA? Tell me so I can get it.”
This is the answer I was given, “A GPA is well, you know, your GPA.”
I had figured that out before this point. Again I asked, “Where do I get this GPA?”
This was the answer to that question, “You get it from your school.”
In another situation I would have thought I was being mocked. I patiently explained that I came from a country that did not have GPAs. I received a blank expression.
My point here is that the friendly person behind the front desk could not even explain to me what a GPA is. To this day I find that unbelievable.
The next part is even more unbelievable. I was asked to provide my transcripts. I did not know what a transcript was, so I asked.
This is the answer I was given, “A transcript is well, you know, your transcripts. You get them from your school.”
It is obvious that this answer did not answer my question. So I asked to please tell me what a transcript is so that I can get it from my school.
This is the response to that question, “Transcripts are, well, you just get them.”
Not very helpful.
The third thing left me bewildered. I was told I needed to take the SAT. So I asked, “What is this SAT so I can take it?”
I’m sure my readers will know the answer before I say it.
“The SAT is well, the SAT and you have to take it.”
At this point I was pretty sure I was not being mocked, but it made me wonder why they had someone who didn’t really know a whole lot about the education process sit at the front desk to answer questions.
I left the academic counseling office with none of my questions answered.
Then I discovered this gold mine of information: the college catalog.
In less that 30 minutes I had discovered the answers to every one of my questions. I discovered answers to questions I didn’t know I had.
I discovered what general education A through E requirements were. I discovered the transfer pattern. I discovered that I didn’t need transcripts, a high school GPA, or SAT scores.
My experience made me self-reliant. The information is there, as long as you are willing to spend the time and look for it.
But I didn’t stop there. I made myself available to my classmates, since many of them had the same experience as me. I shared what I knew, what I had discovered, never realizing that this was my initial step on my path to being an educator.
Let me ask you now as an educator. Can you hear what you are saying? Do you speak in cliches? Do you employ circular reasoning? Can you explain the simple things without using the name of the thing in your explanation?
If we can’t hear what we are actually saying, we have lots of work to do.
