Prep school retooled for future mids

[unhappycamper]

Prep school retooled for future mids
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 14, 2009 6:38:29 EST

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Midshipmen entering the Naval Academy from its preparatory school were arriving with badly underdeveloped study skills for the past two years, the academy’s superintendent said, which is why the prep school curriculum got a major overhaul this autumn.

Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler said plebes who had come from the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, R.I., had so much trouble with basic studying that academy officials decided to redesign the courses at NAPS to focus on completing assignments and asking for help.

“We decided the first thing that was most important was, get young people to do homework, supervised homework, in class, because that seemed to be the biggest thing over my two previous years: They’re not turning in any homework,” Fowler said. “We found out they didn’t know how to do the homework, or they had questions on it, and at nighttime even if they wanted to ask, the support (at NAPS) wasn’t as robust as we would like.”

Fowler fired NAPS’ previous commander, Capt. Leland Sebring, on Aug. 31. Fowler would not discuss the reasons for Sebring’s relief, but he did describe the new curriculum for NAPS students: During the first portion of their 10-month course of study, students take classes, then do their homework immediately after, together with their classmates and instructors — rather than that evening in their dorm rooms.

Fowler said all plebes needed to make the same freshman adjustments as civilian students, but he wanted plebes who came from NAPS to get preparation on top of their remedial classes at the prep school.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/12/navy_academy_roundup_121409w/