Remedial classes made my dreams come true

Alice McGuire

Deputy Editor

Not counting the time I sat in Angell Hall as a 13 year old and told my parents that I wanted to study at the University of Michigan, the first time I stepped foot in a classroom was at Washtenaw Community College. 

Before committing to the task of an associates degree, I had asked my adviser if there was any possible way to graduate without writing an essay before ultimately declaring a major in computer science as a lack of clear cut, correct answers made other subjects daunting. I had a math level of two, while my reading and writing levels nearly tied, placing me at a college ready “six,” according to the Compass exam. 

I was fortunate to have been born into a loving family, with a mom who cared about my education and an aunt who threw books my way at every possible opportunity. At the same time, homeschool was never a perfect fit for me, and I struggled as I hit my teen years and discovered life’s endless complications. 

After looking at the math class that I had placed into, MTH 097, I felt dread at the idea of jumping into algebra, a subject that I had tearfully tried to teach myself for about a decade, and opted to enroll in MTH 067.

I have often credited that decision as being a large part of why I finished my bachelor’s degree at my dream school. That extra bit of foundation made everything which followed make sense, and I was surprised to find that math came easily to me once I had the structure and pacing of a classroom. It was fun, I barely needed to study and my confidence skyrocketed. 

Though I only needed MTH 160 to transfer, I opted to also take MTH 169 for the satisfaction of knowing that I could. This is not an experience that I expect to be statistically significant, but it was mine nonetheless. 

In contrast, writing was a torturous ordeal. While I had always had a high reading level, producing a single paragraph required me to block out a day on my calendar, and I would not have excelled without both the structure of my composition classes and the support of the Writing Center.

After this semester, WCC will no longer offer the classes that enabled my success. It is strange to see the steps that I took demolished as the side effect of a trend. While I am excited for the development of the corequisite model and look forward to writing about students who benefit from it, I am heartbroken by the elimination of standalone developmental courses as they were crucial for my success. 

Had I been forced to jump into MTH 125X, would I have skirted by, keeping my head barely above water, while holding onto the lie that I was innately bad at math? Would I have risen to the Sisyphean challenge of structuring my own remedial education with the help of tutors or would my dreams have stayed small? And how would any of these outcomes be reflected by numbers and data? 

The structure of a classroom is an essential resource, and this trend is rendering it impossible for those who are most in need to access this basic necessity unless they concede to studying college level material, whether they want to or not.

Washtenaw Community College transformed my life, and I am proud to be part of a campus community that is dedicated to helping students succeed. 

But I must admit that I would like to see the college buck current trends by taking steps to address this blindspot–those students who relate to how I once was, who, even if unlike me in countless ways, will experience this change as a door slammed shut. I doubt most will reach out, and so I ask, “How will they count?”

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