I'm conflicted

Dasmine Cathey leaves me conflicted, and I'll get to why in a second. First, though, a little background.

Damine Cathey is a student at the University of Memphis. He's also a scholarship football player who grew up in less than ideal circumstances in Memphis, choosing to stay near home for college so that he could help his family and friends while he was in school. Dasmine is - from what we see in this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education - an admirable individual. He is humble enough to acknowledge that he wasn't ready for college work and willing to do that inglorious, sometimes demeaning work needed to build up his skills so to a point where he is almost ready for college level work. Throughout his time at UMemphis, Cathey drove his friends and family to jobs, used his meal and lodging allotment to help pay other people's bills, and managed to better himself academically.

Dasmine Cathey is to be admired. He is a hard worker and an excellent role model.

And I'm not sure he ever should have been in college in the first place.

How does a young man who can't read beyond a first-grade level graduate from high school? How does the University of Memphis accept a student with those skills? How can a university be expected to meet the needs both of a young man like Dasmine Cathey as well as National Merit Scholars?

Our educational system is drastically flawed when a full scholarship is awarded to a student who isn't remotely ready for college work, when such a young man is able to graduate high school with the belief that he is ready for college work.

I write this knowing that I have passed students in the same situations, have helped students pass the OGT who could barely read. Princeton isn't without sin in this situation. Our success or failure is measured on how many students we graduate, not how many students we prepare for life. We're encouraged to play the numbers in ways that make us look good - whether that means nudging discipline a little to make sure students are coming to school frequently enough for us to make the 93% attendance hurdle or whether it means easing requirements a little so that students earn enough credits to graduate. And if we don't meet our needs, we get pilloried in the press and  lose students to the local private schools.

Even when we do our job, we lose funding and are asked to do more - to educate the same students who are coming to us with less preparation and weaker home support - with fewer people.

I have no clue, by the way, how to fix this without pretty well solving all of our social problems along the way.

Oh, I should mention that I have a distant connection to the story of Dasmine Cathey. Joe Luckey - the guy in the tie there, Memphis's director of athletic academic services, is the brother of a friend of mine.