I am currently reading a book called: "excellent sheep" by William Deresiewicz, which tackles College Education in America; what it is now and what he believes it should be all about. i began reading it during winter break, i believe, and got back to reading it a week or two ago. I remember being quite upset when i first began reading it, to the point i didn't really feel like continuing, but i kept on. The book, right off the bat, basically tells us that colleges (especially the top-tier ivy league type), the great standard that puts a grade on your life before it and determines your life after it, isn't this oasis of self improvement and "Reinventing one's self" that has been advertized thusfar. Colleges now aren't really producing truly independent thinkers or leaders in the true sense of the word, but rather "excellent sheep". Extremely efficient in whatever field they major in, but still as clueless and lost as the first day the stepped in as Freshmen, and still going along with whatever the rest of the herd is doing.
What upset me so much was that for me getting into a great college pretty much meant that your life afterwards would be prosperous and successful, and your time during it would be challenging but also somehow life changing and gratifying in the end. It was a very simple belief, like an eqation with "a good education" and "a good life" being seperated by an equals sign. and the book just tore that apart and i didn't like it one bit. but then i thought about Bill Gates, Steve jobs, mark zuckerberg, all these men that are regarded as the very definition of success by society, and how they all had dropped out of college. They certainly didn'y get whatever made them successful from college, so maybe the book could have a point.
The book went on to describe colleges that resemble businesses more than educational institutions. Colleges don't give their students the freedom and support they need in order to choose their majors and what to do with them, instead they lead them down the path of most profit, so that in the future alumini will support the college with donations. and, also for money, colleges reward teachers for publishing papers rather than for teaching and they are pressured to work on their papers rather than to be good teachers. naturally publishing becomes their priorit rather than actually teaching, and uusually what they end up teaching is whatever they are working on, instead of whatever is more relevant for the education of the students.
With the school and the teachers with their own motives, the student is sort of left to fend for himself, and to obtain a true college education, which the book discusses at length, but comes down to "listening to what others have to say, and coming up with arguments of your own" as the book puts it, and focuses on the humanities, the ability to analise problems and tackling the bigger problems of human existence, becomes a Herculean ordeal.
Some students from different top tier colleges talked about their experiences. They were all well in their way into life and still they didn't really know what they were doing, or even where they wanted to go. Their college experience was just painful and they felt like they got nothing out of it. no purpose, no education, no friends, and anything else one thinks a college education should provide.
One of the people that claimed they had gotten nothing from college was a girl that had majored in environmental science or something of the sort, and held a position of prestige in a large company. She, as everyone saw it, had "made it", success in its truest sense. But still, she felt it was necessary to email the author after hearing one of his seminars and tell him her story, and that she was unhappy with herself. She told him she was going to open a small eco restaurant somewhere in south America i believe (it doesn't really matter, anything "crazy" will do here), something she has no experience with and that even she was uncertain about the odds of success, probably quite slim, but that she had never felt happier and with more purpose. her parents, friends, collegues all strongly disapproved of course. i stop and think at times whether i would have the courage to do something like this. Probably not. hopefully i'll never feel the need to.
everytime i start to read the book or think about what i read, this feeling of unease comes up. It makes me uneasy that such a crucial part of our society, the standard used to measure whether parents passed or failed the test of parenting, and measure the worth of young adults around the world isn't really giving them the reward they truly deserve. it makes me uneasy that there are millions of kids out there, myself included, putting in so much effort into something that might never feel like it was worth all the effort. And it makes me sad to think that there are so many people out there that are not doing what makes them truly happy, either because they don't know how to or are torn between being "successful" and doing what they feel is right for them.
What upset me so much was that for me getting into a great college pretty much meant that your life afterwards would be prosperous and successful, and your time during it would be challenging but also somehow life changing and gratifying in the end. It was a very simple belief, like an eqation with "a good education" and "a good life" being seperated by an equals sign. and the book just tore that apart and i didn't like it one bit. but then i thought about Bill Gates, Steve jobs, mark zuckerberg, all these men that are regarded as the very definition of success by society, and how they all had dropped out of college. They certainly didn'y get whatever made them successful from college, so maybe the book could have a point.
The book went on to describe colleges that resemble businesses more than educational institutions. Colleges don't give their students the freedom and support they need in order to choose their majors and what to do with them, instead they lead them down the path of most profit, so that in the future alumini will support the college with donations. and, also for money, colleges reward teachers for publishing papers rather than for teaching and they are pressured to work on their papers rather than to be good teachers. naturally publishing becomes their priorit rather than actually teaching, and uusually what they end up teaching is whatever they are working on, instead of whatever is more relevant for the education of the students.
With the school and the teachers with their own motives, the student is sort of left to fend for himself, and to obtain a true college education, which the book discusses at length, but comes down to "listening to what others have to say, and coming up with arguments of your own" as the book puts it, and focuses on the humanities, the ability to analise problems and tackling the bigger problems of human existence, becomes a Herculean ordeal.
Some students from different top tier colleges talked about their experiences. They were all well in their way into life and still they didn't really know what they were doing, or even where they wanted to go. Their college experience was just painful and they felt like they got nothing out of it. no purpose, no education, no friends, and anything else one thinks a college education should provide.
One of the people that claimed they had gotten nothing from college was a girl that had majored in environmental science or something of the sort, and held a position of prestige in a large company. She, as everyone saw it, had "made it", success in its truest sense. But still, she felt it was necessary to email the author after hearing one of his seminars and tell him her story, and that she was unhappy with herself. She told him she was going to open a small eco restaurant somewhere in south America i believe (it doesn't really matter, anything "crazy" will do here), something she has no experience with and that even she was uncertain about the odds of success, probably quite slim, but that she had never felt happier and with more purpose. her parents, friends, collegues all strongly disapproved of course. i stop and think at times whether i would have the courage to do something like this. Probably not. hopefully i'll never feel the need to.
everytime i start to read the book or think about what i read, this feeling of unease comes up. It makes me uneasy that such a crucial part of our society, the standard used to measure whether parents passed or failed the test of parenting, and measure the worth of young adults around the world isn't really giving them the reward they truly deserve. it makes me uneasy that there are millions of kids out there, myself included, putting in so much effort into something that might never feel like it was worth all the effort. And it makes me sad to think that there are so many people out there that are not doing what makes them truly happy, either because they don't know how to or are torn between being "successful" and doing what they feel is right for them.