I wanted to continue the brief conversation we had about our feelings of college on this post. I agree with many of you when you say that we learn a lot of pointless things in school. I feel like school, since about 6th grade has been extremely repetitive in some courses. I’ve been learning that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of a cell since my 6th grade living environment class up until now. How that impacts MY life? It doesn’t…at all. But I’m sure there’s a reason why it is taught to us. Part of me, as a future educator hopes that there is a method to the madness in education. I always thought that I haven’t learned much in college, or high school for that matter until I spoke to one of my former teachers. He said the goal isn’t to always teach you something new everyday and to be inspiring everyday, the goal is to give you the tools you need to think, and learn not only inside school but throughout your life time. (I jazzed up his words, but you get the idea). So holding his opinions in high esteem, I think that even though now it seems like we’re not learning much, when we are done with school, the learning that took place within the four walls for over 15 years will come to light…hopefully.
** I say all of this KNOWING that there are classes in college that really don’t teach you anything… Like at all. This post is trying to highlight the ones that are rich in knowledge, but maybe we just don’t appreciate them yet.
I agree. Some classes will teach us things we will carry with us throughout life and some may not. College is a vey stressful time but it can be a great learning experience. We are all, I assume, at the end of our academic career for our undergrad and many of us feel taken advantage of when it comes to tuition and the stress which school seems to bring. We are almost there! This essay we are working on will be our last big paper we are able to show all the skills we have learned.
So I’ve heard the, “Why am I learning this?” argument from … everyone (whether it’s science students who bemoan their English classes and vice versa). I /get/ the argument (i.e., it’s pointless to learn something you won’t “feasibly use” in the future), but I’m of the philosophy that *there is value in any kind of knowledge* (whether it’s P=MV, street smarts, or even knowing random Simpsons trivia). I guess some might say that is an overly romanticized notion of knowledge, but … well, I’ll just quote The Phantom Tollbooth: “‘You may not see it now,’ said the Princess of Pure Reason, looking knowingly at Milo’s puzzled face, ‘but whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way.”
Natasha, I completely agree with your post. I think there is a good side and a bad side to this situation. Us college students should be very proud of ourselves because we choose to go to school and learn something rather than walking the streets. Have you ever spoken to someone who is not in school? I am pretty sure we all have noticed the major difference. I guess College prepare you for life, for example like how to approach things a certain way, how to be wiser about your answers etc. One thing that really frustrates me about college is dealing with the stress of finding a job. Yes, college do prepare you for the job market but after you graduate you are on your own. Colleges should help each student find jobs after graduating. We should already have jobs waiting for us.I know many people who graduate from college with bachelor degree who still don’t have a job. At this point, I am honestly frustrated but I am trying to just focus on passing my classes at this point.
I agree with everyone here. College is tough and stressful and what we are forced to learn may or may not impact us. But the bottom line is we have to because that how the system goes unless something changes. As Jessica said “many of us feel taken advantaged of when it comes to tuition” and this I full-heartily agree with. If only we can retire now and be non-credit students and take the classes we want for $85 or so, that would be life (I learned about this info from my ceramics class). But alas, college still costs a $hit ton of money and we still need to pay for gen. edu. classes and pass them. Let’s just keep our heads high and take what we can get for our money. As my mom told me when I started college, “You might as well LEARN something. This is your money.”
I do agree with you guys about the way college people take our money for the things that we don’t even use it. But what can we do, that’s what it is. I am sure one day it will come back because we all are working hard to get this degree and get jobs. Few classes I feel like being useless and wasting my time because it does not make sense to me that why it is relate to with my major. I just wish we had better people to guide us through every semester instead of leaving us to our own. I know we are in college and consider as adults who need to take responsibilities, but every semester the college keep on adding classes which do not make sense.