Monday Musings...

College and the love of learning...

      I have to admit and without any shame that I didn't finish college. (please hold the gasping) I didn't decide to be a lawyer or a judge like my mother in law wanted and I didn't choose to be a doctor like my Dad was hoping. Sorry Dad. 

     I decided to raise children. Hopefully happy and well adjusted children, or at least as close as I can get considering we are all humans and prone to our own set of quirks, problems, and outlooks right from the moment we exit the womb. Word of warning, a stubborn baby is going to be an equally stubborn child and I suspect an equally stubborn adult. But aren't we all just a bit bullheaded? (grin) 

      But with that being said I did attend college for a couple of years and the college was even paying all my tuition for attending their school. They thought I was smart. At the time I thought I was too, now I know I'm just really good at passing tests. It's inside the box thinking and I was pretty darn good at it. What a fool I was. 

      Being older now, I realize that being inside the box is stifling, restricting, and will drain your soul dry. Scoring great on a test isn't the all end meaning of life. 

     Does anyone remember the joys of learning? Like when we were five and splashing in a rain puddle was a science experiment? When did we lose that love? I think college failed me. I was expecting to learn, to grow, to experience wonder. Instead I had more tests to take, more facts to memorize, which I promptly forgot after the test, and professors that would actually read me their dissertations for our class assignments. Is that a lack of teaching skill, laziness or ego? I even had a Spanish teacher that gave me an A and I couldn't pronounce a single Spanish word correctly. I understood the material, passed the written assignments but I couldn't speak the language we were supposed to be learning. And I received a 'A.'

      I didn't know what I wanted after two years of classes. I wanted to write but most college writing courses don't teach you how to write novels. And I was told by the school that the program I was enrolled in was a stupid program and I wouldn't find any sort of job with that degree. Great, why am I here then? 

      According to a book that recently came out, "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," 45 percent of U.S. college students show little gains in learning after two years of college. Two years. They have little progress in areas, important areas, like critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communications. 

     Now I'm always wary of studies and statistics, most I feel are funded by corporations that want to obtain certain results. But I think we need to delve further into this study. I know college professors, they complain how classes and students are 'dumbed down'. I talk to students and they're frustrated because they have class after class of useless subjects and learn nothing that has to do with having a career, with strengthening vital cognitive skills, with functioning and contributing to a better society. 

     I know I've learned more on my own, just reading, studying, challenging myself than I ever did from most of my college classes. I certainty haven't used any of the classes to make money or raise a family. And I'm not the only one. So where does that leave us? Reform. Whose reform? 

     A great writer, artist, scientist is not a student that was forced inside a box and told what to think. They are the people that realized there wasn't a box to begin with. 

     And so with all that being said, I'm not saying college isn't useful or necessary. I love learning and would hope that people would realize that it doesn't stop when the school bell rings. But I think college needs a tune up or heck, even a complete engine overhaul. We shouldn't fail our children when the love of learning is one of the most important things we can give them.