I didn't realize that college was a euphemism for: more pointless classes. Except this time, you have to pay for them.
In high school, I can remember wondering why I had to take pointless classes in so many subjects that I was never going to use in my adult life. Granted, I enjoyed some of them, but let's be honest with ourselves, not one of my future employers are going to ask me to name all of the major rivers in America and demand I draw them on a map to prove that I indeed the best gal for the job.
Yet, these are the tests that I had to study for my Junior year of high school.
But, I muddled through. I pushed, I stressed, I succeeded, I failed, I toiled, I squeaked by, I managed, I survived four years in a cell block prison, following the man's rules and learning what I could from the few exceptional teachers I did have. Mentally rolling my eyes at the one's that didn't want to be there any more than I did, all so I would be rewarded. So I could finally go to college, a place where I was sure I would finally find the intellectual stimulation I have always craved. A place where I could study what I wanted and leave the nonsensical hullabaloo behind.
What a red herring.
Since arriving to my location of higher education, I find myself slipping into the same vicious cycle of mundane, inane, shenanigans. I have to pay for, and take, classes I don't care about. Classes that will never help me get into law school or onto capitol hill. Classes in which I have to do assignments that no one will even grade. Classes that require ridiculously long papers that my professors don't want to read. Papers, that are graded more on how much I agree with my instructor or how many complex sentences I use,rather than my actual grasp of the concepts presented in class. And when I'm sitting in a lecture, asking questions, trying to start discussion, really trying to dig into a concept; I'm more or less brushed off and politely told that I have no idea what I'm talking about because I do not have a PHD. Honestly, I've just had enough.
In this country we push education. We demand everyone go to school until the age of 16 and if you drop-out, you're considered a social deviant that will never amount to anything. We cut arts funding and stifle creativity. We discontinue vocational training, forcing potential electricians and mechanics to wither away in science class, coloring diagrams of cells, wishing they were anywhere else. We create tests to measure progress and find fault, when they really prove neither. We demand that kids become "well rounded", that they break there necks doing hundreds of things they really don't want to do to get to college only to do it all over again and graduate feeling like they still haven't learned anything useful. Still lost. Still wanting to know what they should be when they grow up.
Why is that? Why do we stop discussions in classrooms before they even start? Why do we force kids to take classes they don't want? Why do we teach everything for a test that won't matter when the bills need to be paid and the rent is due? Really, I don't think anyone could give me a satisfactory answer, but here's my suggestion:
Let people learn how to think, not what to think. Let artsy kids create. Give mechanically minded kids an outlet. Put the tests away and connect with a classroom. Indulge kids, let them learn what they want, let them get really good at one thing instead of expecting them to be good in a thousand things that don't really interest them anyway.
In the eternal words of the Beatles - Let it be. Life is too short to waste with all of this bureaucratic red-tape. It's time we started cultivating minds that are content and confident in their abilities. Not hazy mounds of grey matter jam packed with needless information that will just get data dumped to make room for the topics on the next exam.
Grace if I may comment, the point of a liberal art education isn't to make someone good at a thousand things, its to introduce them to everything. So 30 years down the line when you meet someone and while conversing you ask them "So what do you do?""I am an xxxxx""Oh yes, you know what I find most interesting about xxxxx is..."
ReplyDeleteYou don't want a bunch of people in the world who don't know xxxxx. I understand its tiresome and it sucks but we put up with it so we can understand other people not to mention whatever field you study will eventually overlap with the field you enjoy studying the most. As a future law student you should understand that because law affects so many parts of our society that if you only study law you will never understand laws regarding equality in geopolitics.
But I do feel bad for you having to study the names of all major rivers in America. I can't name more than one major river in America and I lack the ability to name all 50 states, even with gun up to my head. In order to have a world with less ignorance, people need exposure to a variety of things. To end with a quote as well Plato said "Ignorance is the root and stem of all evil."
Good point again, i didnt even know you had a blog i wish i would have known i would have read these a lot sooner, I got lucky when i moved to Ohio my senior year and got to go to a junior vocational school were almost my whole day was spent in a lab class where i got to study hands on with graphic arts and printing, and actually do work for real employers to ready myself to do that kind of work and i wish they would have had that kind of opportunity at lejeune i would have enjoyed school so much more than i did.
ReplyDeleteJesse you're the bee's knees! I hope you're doing everything you love in life right now!!! :)
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