Adam - Reading Notes #9

I was surprised at the homogeneity of student attitudes encountered by the author. The diversity of an average college campus would intuitively oppose any group-think phenomenon; but that was apparently not the case. I am still not convinced that some of the college norms described are anything more than subcultures. For example, on page 99 the author mentions never observing a political discussion. I would be surprised to walk through the cafeteria during lunch hour and not hear a single political comment, let alone an entire semester.

I was least surprised by the emphasis undergraduates place on social versus academic obligations. For freshmen, the social opportunities in college are far more abundant (and appealing) than the academic ones, especially as compared to high school. Given the choice between knowledge and freedom, having had the one force-fed to you for over a decade and the other only glimpsed, is it really so surprising which one students choose? Epictetus said, “Only the educated are free,” but who’s to say that an academic education is any more liberating than a social one (or any more important to a career)?

The advice I would give to new college students is, don’t worry about grades. It may be cliché, but find something you’re passionate about. If you graduate from college having not found a single subject that inspires you, you have failed, regardless of your GPA. Passion offers you the chance to be happy and increases your chance of becoming financially wealthy (if you’re into that sort of thing).

The advice I would give to new college instructors is, challenge your students. Challenge them to think and challenge them to learn. That doesn’t mean your classes need be “hard” and it certainly doesn’t mean they need to be homework intensive. It does mean covering more than what students could get from the Wikipedia entry on the course topic, expecting participation (demanding it if necessary), and holding students accountable for their actions and material.

Rather than changing my view of undergraduate students, this book has reinforced my view. The second most surprising aspect of this book (and a common instructor attitude) is how disjointed it is from students. A person does not become an instructor without being a student first… for decades! Elementary school, secondary school, undergraduate school, graduate school, and for some, postgraduate school: I’m confused at how someone can experience so much as a student and then ever feel detached from it, no matter how many years pass. I can’t imagine ever not feeling like a student, no matter how many years I teach.

I was happy to read that, “Lest one become too perturbed by ‘today’s youth’ and their anti-intellectualism… at least some of these dynamics are two centuries old,” (107). I had been thinking that very thing for approximately the previous hundred pages, but with millennia replacing centuries. Youth has rebelled against establishment since the beginning of civilization. Rebellion itself is a rite of passage (the rite of passage?) which college facilitates. Altering the dynamic of the institution merely creates a new establishment against which to rebel.

I am content if in fact college curriculum is generated from the model of an ideal student (as opposed to reality). That is part of the role college plays in challenging students. And rebelling against that ideal is part of the role students play in pursuing a social, as well as academic, education.