The Back Doors to Education

Mainstreaming in education is good in the sense that it gives an equal opportunity at education. But equal opportunity doesn't have to mean "exactly the same as." The presence of an opportunity, and how that opportunity is actualized, are two different ideas.

In Tennessee, an AS student with 19 colleges courting him is having trouble getting a high school diploma because of algebra. In the UK, an AS student who has conditionally been accepted at Cambridge was denied admission to high school. And in less-exotic-to-me Portland, Oregon, I talked with support staff about how Dawn Prince-Hughes became an expert with a PhD on a GED and a series of independent studies. Either because of the rigidity of the educational system, or because of our own personal learning style not fitting well with the educational system, doing education the same way as others may be neither appropriate nor desirable.

Here are some questions that come up a lot when I talk with people about access to post secondary education:

1. Is it possible to go to college with a modified high school diploma?

2. What if general education requirements outside of Interests are too hard to manage?

3. What if being in a classroom is too hard to manage?

4. What if standardized tests are too hard to manage?

I don't know a single "correct" answer to those questions, but I do know a lot of little possibles. I also know that the rigidity of the educational system in the U.S. is a huge barrier for non-traditional learners. But, on the hopeful side, there are also some "back doors"--ways around these barriers.

Modified (or other-non traditional high school) diploma? No experience personally, but parents in my area have reported that colleges don't care as much as is often threatened. I do know that when one is in high school a disproportionate amount of weight is put on the connection between high school and college. Wait a few years after high school graduation, and many colleges don't even ask for a transcript. Some colleges even have admission processes that are about personal essays, portfolios, and experience, not about diplomas or SAT scores. Or--this is something I've done personally to bypass admission requirements--take a few classes at a university without applying for admission; then use the university transcript instead of the high school (or, in my case, undergraduate) transcript. There are options.

Gen. ed. issues? Heh, this one I am quite familiar with. I skipped gen. ed. with a specialized bachelors, and then grad school--well there is no gen. ed. for that! Try a degree that doesn't require, or has minimal requirements for gen. ed., such as a fine arts degree for artists, or a specialized technical associates degree. Or, perhaps even better, choose an accredited university which allows students to design their own curriculum, like Evergreen. A third option is to work out alternatives for a particularly difficult gen. ed. class as a disability accommodation (e.g. substituting a course that is possible for one that is not).

Classroom issues? Online schooling and distance learning is becoming more and more available. Then there's the mentoring route a la Prince-Hughes.

Standardized tests? This is another one I'm familiar with. While some universities may shout, "REQUIREMENT!" my personal experience has been that standardized tests can waived on grounds of disability and with proof of ability in those areas the test is intended to measure (e.g. can this person succeed at university courses?).

I could go on, but the main point is that just because the educational system is ridged, or ill suited to us, or because the idea of "must do the same things as everyone else" is in vogue, does not mean we must do things the same way as everyone else "just because." For those of us who the system doesn't work for, there are other ways to achieving the same results, to truly give us equal educational opportunities.