Once a month, I engage with a group of colleagues in a breakfast conversation about a book we have all agreed to read this year: Souls in Transition by Christian Smith. This book describes a study conducted by Smith and his colleagues in an effort to understand those things which inform emerging adults' attitudes toward and beliefs about spirituality and religious practice. Our conversations are always animated and challenging, as we all have different areas of expertise and different points of view to bring to the table. This morning, one of my colleagues reflected on a conversation he had with a student recently. In a nutshell, the student expressed this posture toward his education: it is an obligation, not a privilege or an adventure. He goes to class because he has to. Who is making him do this? No, not his parents or his teachers. The force "making" him go to college is the social expectation that he will be a loser if he doesn't get a Bachelor's degree, and he'll be shut out of all the things American society has deemed good and valuable.
No wonder so many students experience their college classes as drudgery. Obligation tends to wear us down. It makes us feel burdened and resentful. It makes us tired. I'm not sure how to change this perception, but I think it is imperative that we do. Otherwise, education has become just a giant machine to which our students are bound in servitude.
No wonder so many students experience their college classes as drudgery. Obligation tends to wear us down. It makes us feel burdened and resentful. It makes us tired. I'm not sure how to change this perception, but I think it is imperative that we do. Otherwise, education has become just a giant machine to which our students are bound in servitude.
It has become a social expectation almost to not live in poverty, and by going to college has been deemed as the way out. Students need to understand that what we do now will effect our lives down the road. For this student to say that he is forced to attend class is true in the sense that if he does not then he will fail and not graduate. He surely went to college for a higher education, but if not then he has the wrong meaning of success.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand where this student is coming from. School oftentimes does feel like an obligation, and it can become monotonous and routine after awhile. In high school, it was much, much worse for me. But in college, I have found that classes are much more enjoyable. Passionate professors make the class much easier to handle and to learn from.
ReplyDeleteThis is in a way very true. Societal norms dictate much of one's behavior; however, I think that learning interesting things, or at least in an interesting way releases the pressure of that force and allows one to enjoy being at school. It's all in the manner of approach by both student and teacher. My sister always used to tell me that if I'm bored it's my own fault because there is always something to do. And she was right. So when it comes to learning, to school, one can make the most mundane information interesting if one applies oneself and sees the information in a way interesting to oneself. For example, history, an otherwise potentially 'boring' subject, is interesting to me because I see it as stories, stories being something I love. Maybe this way, the obligation of society can be turned into something better.
ReplyDeleteI have read Souls in Transition and I Tough it was a very good, Smith did a very good study on religious practices. I would have to agree that there is some type of force that does make us go to class because I have been to every one of my classes but I really don’t want to go.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this thought. The reason that education is not enjoyable because it is forced on us and nothing is as good when you are made to do it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that society makes us believe that we have to obtain a college degree to even live comfortably. It is amazing why most college students are even attending college.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the student. I think the impact of social media and media itself has really deemed a certain mindset of what is success. I have friends who don't go to college, some are doing pretty well and others are having a rough time. I believe that the added pressure of school can only hurt in the long run. Everyone must find happiness though above all. School or no school, find happiness--legally.
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