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What am I learning? [Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005, 11:06 pm]
Guess what? My college just got a machine that makes free student ID cards for the students. Wow, we are SO going places now! I mean, my goodness, what will they think of next - a school newspaper? As usual, my picture looks horrible. It's odd, but I've discovered that most of the pictures I like of myself were those taken spontaneously. When I actually realize a picture is being taken, or have to pose for one - it just looks fake. I dunno why. So, question: what exactly is the purpose of college? To "get smart"? To get a degree that will help you earn more money? To start a career? To party? To get good grades? To simply prepare oneself for the stresses and deadlines that one must deal with in the mainstream workplace? One of my professors this summer always told us: "Don't be a perfectionist about your GPA, because there's little to no correlation between college GPA's and success in the workplace. The most important thing right now is to get your degree." And I'm sure he's right about the GPA, but I would disagree about the degree being the most important thing. I say, if you're spending so much money, and time, and effort on your schoolwork, shouldn't your main goal be to actually learn what you're studying? What good does the degree do you if the knowledge doesn't stick? Simply "getting a degree" doesn't necessarily qualify a person to do their job, and it's not something that can be bought either. But even with knowing that, I'm finding myself in the wrong mindset this semester, of simply doing things I hate just to get them done with. Just get through it. Write the stupid paper, study for the test, stress out about the group project, and drown it out with music when you're all done. So I ask myself, what have I learned in college so far? Well, I didn't learn much in math - it was basically a rehash of high school, although I re-learned the fact that I'm too impatient with most problems, especially when confronted with an entire lesson-full that needs to be done. History was interesting - all I really enjoyed was the books we got to read on the side, rather than any of the textbooks or mainstream ideologies presented. Psychology was quirky at times, boring at others. English 101 was easy. English 102 taught me how to write papers in a less personal and more mechanistic way. Although I did pick up a few insights on pieces of literature from other students, that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. Nutrition was awesome - I learned a lot there. Interpersonal communications was very informative as well. And that leaves. . .photography. I'd say those classes are the ones I've learned the most in so far, partially because I never took any photo classes before this. I don't really know where I'm going with this. I know college is a racket. I'm not saying it has no purpose, because certainly it's much more difficult to get most good jobs without a degree. But I believe that how much a person learns in college depends both on the person, the teachers, the books, and the college - there are a lot of factors. People a long time ago were much smarter. The fathers teach their sons a trade, the sons make money off the trade and don't have to give a darn about expensive colleges. The girls have so many household duties to do that they don't even NEED to worry about college. Well okay, so it wasn't perfect either, but I really think there was a lot of intelligence involved in passing trades down through the generations, even though not everyone is cut out for what their fathers do. Okay, end of rambly ranting spiel. Let's just say that at this moment there are some things I really like and other things I really hate about college. I just want to transfer next year. *Laura* Miss anything?
Vitality - Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 |