Educati Educati tion on A SPECIAL SECTION OF T HE RIV ER TOW NS EN T ERPRISE ✍ JANUARY 20, 2012
Can cramming be avoided? By EVE MARX
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e’ve all been there: it’s the night before a big exam or college or graduate school qualifications test and we’re frantic, attempting to absorb the mass of information we know we should have learned over a prolonged, steady period of time. As horrible as those up-all-night cramming sessions may be in our memory, it’s even more painful to relive the feeling again watching our offspring repeat the process. Some of us, unfortunately, never truly abandon the practice of cramming and as adults find ourselves force-feeding information into our brains throughout our entire professional lives, cramming the night before a big presentation, an important interview or any time at all when the pressure’s on to show our mastery of any subject. The term “cramming” is a slang word that’s been around for a long time. The British also call the same behavior “mugging” or “swotting.” No matter the subject, cramming is the practice of working intensively to absorb large volumes of informational material in a short amount of time. And while many students resort to cramming the night before a test, the practice is generally condemned by professional educators because hurried coverage of material tends to result in poor long-term retention and an inability to fully master content. While cramming is most popular with high school and college students, they’re hardly alone doing it. With academic performance pressure now trained on even the youngest students, children as young as 5 or 6 are now often subjected to cramming, largely by their own parents. What’s more, the practice of cramming is so widely assimilated into the culture, dozens of sites on the Web, including YouTube, offer videos on the best continued page 6a
Inside... Ready for kindergarten? Your child, your decision ...............3A Online learning: The growth of digital classrooms ............... 7A College move: The why, when and how of transferring .......8A Learning language: Bolstering second-language skills at every age .................................... 10A Education Notebook .. 16A-19A
THE PLAN TO PAY FOR COLLEGE
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By JACKIE LUPO
his year, an in-state student attending one of the State University of New York (SUNY) colleges will pay about $21,000 in tuition, room and board, and expenses. A student attending Colgate University, a private liberal arts college in upstate New York, will pay over $55,000. An out-of-state student attending a large state school such as the University of North Carolina will have to come up with about $41,000. Those are the costs for this year. College costs are rising at between 5-8 percent per year, outstripping the rate of inflation. At this rate it will cost half a million dollars or more to send today’s toddlers to
Harvard. Are average families really expected to come up with this kind of money? The answer is, they are — and they aren’t. According to the College Board, about 2 out of 3 full-time undergraduates get some kind of financial aid, generally a combination of grants, scholarships, loans and jobs. Federal loans account for about 39 percent of all financial aid dollars. But families who don’t want their kids to be saddled with enormous loans need to think about saving. It’s never too late, and it’s also never too early. The sooner the better “At the rate costs are going up, families can’t even keep pace,” said Tom Ausfahl, principal at Greystone Wealth Advisors LLC continued page 4a