[crsmithdev]

I had a similar experience: I went to a very good, Catholic college prep school and I wrote a lot of papers well before setting foot in college. In some ways, it was more challenging than any subsequent education.

However, this is not the normal educational experience of many in America. Outside of private and (good) public schools, what's described here is probably the rule, not the exception.

[tptacek]

So: I know this is true. My kids were privileged to attend one of the better large public high schools in Chicagoland, and I'm not indifferent to that situation.

But that's not really the argument this little piece is making, because it's arguing that incoming college students are underprepared by high school, and demographically, college students as a cohort tend to come from the better high schools anyways.

[hueving]

I think your scope of college students is too narrow. You do not have to do well in high school to get into some kind of low tier college. Low tier colleges will take anyone with a pulse who can get a loan.

[tptacek]

Maybe. I'm interested in learning more about where Dennis Fried taught.

[pmiller2]

According to The Directory of American Philosophers, 1980 edition [0], he taught at Franklin and Marshall College at that time. Probably with a little more digging, you could come up with his academic CV. The school is a small, expensive, private liberal arts college that's (currently) well-ranked in the US News rankings[1].

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[0]: https://books.google.com/books?id=5D9AAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchw...

[1]: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/franklin-and-marshall-c...

[tptacek]

So, what's the likelihood that the incoming freshmen at Franklin and Marshall (a) had trouble with "cats/cat's/cats'" and (b) hadn't written any papers in high school?