Sarah VanPolen

ENG 111

James VanderMey

2/28/17 Critical Review

Todays high school students may not only be classified as student-

athletes. Rising up in high schools across the country are dual enrolled

student-athletes. These students are a select group that have taken on the

role of completing several different sets of standards. These students are

looked upon as the Smart Kids, but in reality those students are the ones

struggling to stay above the rising water line of academic expectations.

In Amanda Chritzs reading, The Tipping Scale of Neutrality, she

discusses the overlooked variables of high school students taking college

courses. Chritz brings up the lack of micro aggressions and trigger warnings

in the dual enrolled classroom. The students are all familiar with one another

and there is not a widespread diversity among them, this can leave the

students ill prepared for the college. The students feel prepared and ready to

move on to more college classes, but in reality they have not had exposure

to these micro aggressions that they were free from in the dual enrolled

classroom. College can be a huge diversity shock for many students trading

their small home town high school for a college that will have protestors,

religion conflicts, and unfiltered peers and professors. Chritzs does a very
nice job explaining the transition dual enrolled students face when they step

onto the college campus. The academic censorships were a great

contribution that was well explained by Chritz whom most likely came from a

small school. I was able to relate and make connections to my own dual

enrolled experiences and the academic censorship from this reading.

Chritzs reading is very well organized with her use of incorporating

other authors such as Paulo Freire and Jack Mezirow. She brings her own

ideas and simply links them to the authors original idea. I was able to see

how Freire and Mezirow readings are alive and moving throughout the

academic world. Chritz does an awesome job of making it enjoyable to read

and analyze the connections such as, Problem posing within K-12 education

provides a base-level frame of reference of experience, and both are

prerequisites to become adult learners that must overcome previously

solidified frames of reference through critical internal reflections of false-

preconceptions and assumptions (Chritz 149). She still has depth and

thought to her reading, but I am able to follow along and not become lost in

a jumble of words.

I really enjoyed Chritzs reading for many of the readings stated above.

I would recommend her reading to anyone that is finding the transition to or

back into college a little bit difficult. Chritz brings to light many concepts that

I was able to connect to my own experience. For the students that have
looked back and described themselves as skating through or jumping

through the hoops of high school, this is an eye opening article.

Works Cited

Chritz, Amanda. The Tipping Scale of Neutrality. Exploring

Connections. Pearson. Mid Michigan Community College