University of California, degree granting through Ph.D. level. But, since math and
languages and history are not required, let’s see how they fill the other
classrooms.
The University of California (all campuses) is classed as a “tough school.”
It is paralleled by a State University system with lower entrance requirements, and
this is paralleled by local junior colleges (never called “junior”) that accept any
warm body.
UCSC was planned as an elite school (“The Oxford of the West”) but falling
enrollment made it necessary to accept any applicant who can qualify for the
University of California as a whole; therefore UCSC now typifies the “statewide
campus.” Entrance can be by examination (usually College Entrance Examination
Boards) or by high school certificate. Either way, admission requires a certain
spread-2 years of math, 2 of a modern language, 1 of a natural science, 1 of
American history, 3 years of English-and a level of performance that translates as
B+. There are two additional requirements: English composition, and American History
and Institutions. The second requirement acknowledges that some high schools do not
require American history; UCSC permits an otherwise acceptable applicant to make up
this deficiency (with credit) after admission.
The first additional requirement, English composition, can be met by written
examination such as CEEB, or by transferring college credits considered equivalent,
or, lacking either of these, by passing an examination given at UCSC at the start of
each quarter.
The above looks middlin’ good on the surface. College requirements from high
school have been watered down somewhat (or more than somewhat) but that B+ average
as a requirement looks good
if high schools are teaching what they taught two and three generations ago. The
rules limit admission to the upper 8% of California high school graduates
(out-ofstate applicants must meet slightly higher requirements).
8%- So 92% fall by the wayside. These 8% are the intellectual elite of young
adults of the biggest, richest, and most lavishly educated state in the Union.
Those examinations for the English-composition requirement: How can anyone
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fail who has had 3 years of high school English and averages B+ across the board?
If he fails to qualify, he may enter but must take at once (no credit)
“Subject A”-better known as “Bonehead English.”
“Bonehead English” must be repeated, if necessary, until passed. To be
forced to take this no-credit course does not mean that the victim splits an
occasional infinitive, sometimes has a dangling modifier, or a failure in agreement
or case-he can even get away with such atrocities as “-like I say-.”
It means that he has reached the Groves of Academe
unable to express himself by writing in the English language.
It means that his command of his native language does not equal that of a
12-year-old country grammar school graduate of ninety years ago. It means that he
verges on subliterate but that his record is such in other ways that the University
will tutor him (no credit and for a fee) rather than turn him away.
But, since these students are the upper 8% and each has had not less than
three years of high school English, it follows that only the exceptionally
unfortunate student needs “Bonehead English.” That’s right, isn’t it? Each one is
eighteen years old, old enough to vote, old enough to contract or to marry without
consulting parents, old enough to hang for murder, old enough to have children (and
some do); all have had 12 years of schooling including 11 years of English, 3 of
them in high school.
(Stipulated: California has special cases to whom English is not native
language. But such a person who winds up in that upper 8% is usually-I’m tempted to
say “always”-fully literate in English.)
So here we have the cream of California’s young adults; each has learned to
read and write and spell and has been taught the basics of English during eight
years in grammar school, and has polished this by not less than three years of
English in high school-and also has had at least two years of a second language, a
drill that vastly illuminates the subject of grammar even though grasp of the second
language may be imperfect.