College: Time Well....Wasted?

It’s amazing how many college students in our generation take higher learning for granted. And believe me, I’m not any better, I know I take my college education for granted, but it seems hard not to. It is increasingly becoming a way of life. After high school, you go to college. No questions asked. It’s just what you do. This was different for the generation before us, and for the generation before that, a college education was only for the elite. For us--it's expected.

Society's higher expectations for our generation seem to result in a growing cynicism amongst college students of the importance of a college degree. When I was in high school, I knew I would be going to college afterwards; there was no doubt in my mind. I was young and excited, and I had big dreams for myself. I thought that a college degree would be my ticket to whatever career I wanted. Now that I am in college though, I find reasons not to attend class, despite the ridiculous amount of money that I spend on every unit I take. The more classes I take, the closer I am to obtaining my degree, the more I think a college degree is overrated. I have found that in the real world, it is all about who you know, rather that what you know.

Some students who feel the same cynicism towards college made a video called “A Vision of Students Today”. Some 200 college students, led by their professor, made the video to highlight the problems of higher education today. The students created a survey and took it, then collaborated all of the answers to find trends that are detrimental to the college system.

“A Vision of Students Today” is quite an eye-opening video that touches on many concerns of students today. They are concerns that plague many college students around the country, not just the few students who voiced their opinion on the video. I think these problems deserve to be looked at carefully, and I believe as more students realize the problems with our education system, more students will become cynical to the importance of a college degree.

The part of the video that talks about the number of pages a student will read in a semester, and how much of the reading will actually pertain to her life was most amusing to me. Professors assign reading homework, it seems, just to have something for their students to do. Unless there is a test designed specifically for the reading, most of what professors have us read is useless. And the cost of textbooks is even more outrageous than the fact that we have to read them! It baffles me that, after tuition is paid, students still fork out hundreds of dollars just on books! Usually books they will never need again.

I agree with the students in the video, students learn what they are doing, not necessarily what they are reading. Hands-on, real-life homework assignments are much more helpful to students. Filling out a scantron and marking bubbles A through E do not help them once they have their diploma. Being involved in real-world situations that would plague someone in their prospective profession is much more valuable than knowing all the key terms at the back of a chapter. Some professors know this, others will, hopefully, get on board soon. It is the only way our outdated education system will be revived.