On December 03 2009 08:07 mahnini wrote:
somewhere a long the line college went from a supplementary tool for educational growth to a mandatory stepping stone in order to stay relevant in the job market. i'm not complaining, it's only natural. however, i think this is where much of the problem stems from.
i find it surprising that he advocates the idea that college is the reason for limiting growth when really the entire education system holds you hand for much of your life and implements the nearly the exact same structure and social norms, what do you expect? put a man in prison for some twenty-odd years and expect him to function "normally" in the real world, the example is extreme but it's something to think about.
i can also recall many times throughout my educational career in which a teacher would say "X schooling will prepare you for Y". perhaps i was naive, but i took that to heart only to find disappointment. you should not depend on any one institution to prepare you for the so-called real world. you should not wholly depend on any institution for anything, though they do provide opportunities, as growth stems from within. always has, always will.
I remember in college there were some professors that really tried to prepare you, while others that literally made a deal with you at the beginning of the semester saying everyone gets an A, I just want to get good peer reviews. Literally that was the first conversation that went on the first day.
These students that are getting babied, some of them have the gall to complain about the one guy that's trying to help him. I remember one professor that would purposely give us more than we could handle (While giving us ways to get around it.) and put us in situations that we'd often run into in the workplace. The thing was even if you fell and couldn't handle it, the lowest grade you could get in his class was a B. It's like a mother bird pushing a baby bird out of the nest, only there is a safety net below and people still have the nerve to treat the guy like shit when that professor really cared more about their future than anyone else.
The education system itself can often punish good teachers that are willing to treat you like an adult rather than a child. If a professor helps prepare kids for life in the real world they become the minority and these spoiled babied kids that don't even understand that by all expectations of society and the law they are an adult by the time they graduate think this guy is such a jerk when he is the only one willing to go out on a line to help them.
I don't really care if a person get's babied or not during their first twenty years of life. A kindergarten like atmosphere is for kindergartners and that's ok, because they're just kids. By the time you hit your teens you should probably be getting your shit together, but even if you don't then it isn't the end of the world because you still have some time. If a kid has one year left before graduation no one's doing them any favors by treating them like a child, they're going to be an adult to society whether they like it or not and by that point that is the only thing someone can do for them.
You can't expect someone to come along and teach you how to live your life or one day it will finally click and you'll grow up. "you should not depend on any one institution or person to prepare you for the so-called real world. you should not wholly depend on any institution for anything, though they do provide opportunities, as growth stems from within. always has, always will."
If you only have one year before you leave school for the real world. I implore you to figure out what you're going to do afterwards. I don't care what you do with your life as long as you know what you're doing.
Also
On December 03 2009 04:30 rgfdxm wrote:
Excellent article. I agree that the lack of role models and informal mentoring relationships is a big deal. The age segregation bit applies to all levels of school but it doesn't stop being true for college either.
It seems to me that there are a lot of aspects of "adult culture" that contribute to the difficulty of the transition to post-college life, but that's probably outside the scope of this essay. Everything he brings up are legitimate issues that deserve some thought.
Because I might not have another chance, thank you.