What'd You Ask? Why College? (Revised Edition!)

Why College, huh?  Well, to me, college equals FREEDOM. Now when I say freedom, I don’t mean the typical teenage freedom: partying, drinking, staying out all night, or doing things I wouldn’t do if I were at home. I mean freedom to be the best I can be without any circumstances holding me back, freedom to take charge of my life, freedom to seclude myself from my family’s horrible tradition of not putting their best foot forward and not setting strong examples for my generation. I know I’m throwing a lot at you and you probably feel like your missing a bit of information from my life, right? Well, let me tell you a little bit about my past:

 When I was a kid, I could never come to terms and figure out why the majority of my family was always struggling and burdened by things that I was so unaware of at the time. Every time we came together, there would always be at least one person that was under the weather or in dyer need of support, financially and emotionally. Whenever my elders would begin to talk about things that “weren’t for kids ears,” they would always shoo the kids out of the room, all of them except for me. They didn’t want us to see or hear their struggle. But me being the youngest at the time, I was considered the special one or the “favorite.” It was ok for me to be in the room because of course a little naïve kid like me wouldn’t know how to piece together what they were saying or comprehend the strong discouraging emotion that was reflecting on each and every one of their faces. Little did they know, I was very observant and had what some would call an overly active memory.

So as I grew older and began to notice more and more, things started to become clear to me. In my school system, we were introduced to the idea of college at a very early age. By the time second grade rolled around, I was convinced that college “makes people happy” and “gives people money” and “makes life easy” and will one day help me become the “doctor” or “scientist” that every little kid wanted to be. And then it hit me… “Why hadn’t the majority of my family gone to college? Why would they do such a thing? Is this why they are always so unhappy? It has to be! They didn’t go to college, so they didn’t have a good chance at becoming successful, so they don’t have that much money so life is hard for them.” I noticed that with the exception of my mom and one out of 10 of my aunts, no one in my family had achieved any form of higher education outside of high school. It all started to make sense to me. Watching some of my cousins being taken away from the family because their parents couldn't provide a suitable living place for them because of their lack of education and money, and also seeing some of the things my family members were doing to try to survive quickly made me realize that I did NOT want to follow in their footsteps and live my life like they were living theirs. I had to find a way to become more than what I was surrounded by. So, for me, college was my way out. I chose to go to college because I figured that if I kept pushing myself, and kept striving to be better than my best, then I would get to a point in life where I could live FREELY, without burden, and could eventually help my family build themselves up. I’ve always strongly believed that knowledge is power, and if I were to ever come to a point in life where I lost all my possessions, I would still have my knowledge, and with it I can create a better world for myself and even others at any time.  

 photo credit: Brett Jordan via photopin cc

photo credit: Krissy.Venosdale via photopin cc

You can have more degrees than a thermometer, but is college really enough?

      Let's be honest...How many of us spent most of our high school days contemplating what we're going to do after the long awaited graduation day? And, how many of us realized that just because high school was over, doesn't mean that we couldn't sit around the house and wait for mom to make us sandwiches the rest of our lives? AND, how many of us came to the conclusion that if we want to be something in this world, then sooner or later we would have to go to "Almighty" college to be successful? Go ahead. Raise your hand. It's ok to admit because we've all been there and we've all been told that college is the way to go! But, think about it...Is college really good enough? Is college actually all you need to be successful?....

         According to the College In America Info graphic, college isn’t all its cracked up to be. Why? Because of the rapidly decreasing job opportunities, poor graduation rates, and even some of the most absurd classes! Studies show that more high school students are aspiring to go to college than ever before. However, they don’t yet know that going to college alone, isn’t going to guarantee them success in the 21^st century. They can have more degrees than a thermometer, but that one piece of paper with their name and degree of study stamped on it means absolutely nothing unless they put it to use. Unfortunately, school systems today are teaching students everything except how to thrive after college graduation. In some cases, it seems like they’re teaching the exact opposite, implied in John Coleman’s article "The Bad Habits You Learn in School."

“It can be tough to help new college graduates adjust to the real world. Joey, a 22-year-old, Ivy League graduate who joined one of my consulting teams, was a great example. He was bright, hardworking, and motivated. But he had bad habits that were hard to break. Joey would become so focused on the perfect answer to a problem, he wouldn't consider implementation. He feared failure so much that he would hide his mistakes until they grew worse. He was only interested in getting his own work right — rarely helping the rest of the team proactively. And he saw the world in terms of hierarchy: I was his "boss," and no one else's opinion really mattered.”

     All throughout the twelve to twenty years that people attend school, they are taught about authority and that being the leader means being the boss. And who doesn’t want to be the boss!? We’re also taught to compete against others so that we can have a better rank than them, especially in college. Learning to work together to accomplish a goal is one skill that is most definitely being thrown out the window. Instead, it’s a race for dominance. Also, students are being taught that there can only be one right answer to a question and that thinking outside the box is not the way to go. Students have gotten so used to looking for the textbook answer. However, in the real world, textbook answers aren’t going to be as beneficial when you have to do a job that requires you to use common sense rather than book smarts.

The video Is College Enough gives a great explanation about college and outside skills that you need to acquire that some people don’t learn during their college journey. Adaptation is a big part of being successful in the 21^st century. Because of all the new technology and sudden requests, knowing how to adapt to certain situations is a MUST! But, most of the time, college only teaches you how to manage things when they are going how they’re supposed to. How are students supposed to know when and how to adapt with their environment?

In the article, The Case Against College Education, the dominating opinion is that college is not always enough to guarantee success now or in the future, nor does it always do the job in preparing an individual for their chosen career field.

“It is absurd that people have to get college degrees to be considered for good jobs in hotel management or accounting — or journalism. It is inefficient, both because it wastes a lot of money and because it locks people who would have done good work out of some jobs. The tight connection between college degrees and economic success may be a nearly unquestioned part of our social order. Future generations may look back and shudder at the cruelty of it.”

        So, to wrap it all, the answer to the BIG question is no. College is not enough. “Your education won’t guarantee success” (Hughes 2008) College teaches individuals how to compete against one another and how not to think outside the box. Without a person’s will power to go further after graduating from college, more than likely, they will not succeed in today’s economy. College graduates still need to learn certain skills that are not taught in college, they need to be able to adapt to their surroundings, and they need to know what behavior to use in certain situations that arise. 

COLLEGE: The Good Of It In a Nutshell!!!

photo credit: Debbie Koenigs (probably outside) via photopin cc 

We can all conclude that everyone has their different reasons for coming to college, right? And, because it’s been shoved in our heads through every different direction, most of us are convinced that college is A MUST and that in order to be successful, we have to go. But, why exactly is it good? What purpose does college serve? How does attending college benefit each individual student who chooses to take that huge leap out of the bird’s nest and move forward with their lives? Well, to be honest with you, I agree that college is the key to success. It opens up doors for individuals that will one day become the top doctors in the country or some of the greatest politicians to ever walk the face of the earth. As stated in Louis Menand’s article, "Live and Learn," “Society wants to identify intelligent people early on so that it can funnel them into careers that maximize their talents. It wants to get the most out of its human resources. College is a process that is sufficiently multifaceted and fine-grained to do this.”

College also benefits society in a sense that it prepares the “daring” individuals who attend for the real world. It equips them for the social aspects of life as far as job searching, interviewing, and basically just broadening their horizons about all the diversity taking place around them that will more than likely be there for the rest of their lives. The article "The Benefits of Having a College Education" implies that “Making the acquaintance of people with diverse histories gives you a broader world view, cultural understanding, and sophistication. At college, you’ll surround yourself with people who can share a multitude of backgrounds, cultures and experiences.” 

What else is college good for? Well….the obvious answer would be that college is a place where you can gain knowledge about millions of different things, and in today’s society, knowledge equals power. Have you ever been in class and there were just these few select students that seemed to know ALL the answers to ALL the questions EVERYDAY? How did it make you feel? Did you feel as if you were inadequate compared to them? Did you try not to look them in the eye because you didn’t want them to catch a glimpse of that hateful glare that you so desperately wanted to give them? It’s as if they had control over the class, right? Well, technically, they did. Because of their, what seemed like, overflowing amount of knowledge, those “smart” kids had power over all of the others who felt like they were less than average at the moment. So, as I’ve stated in the above paragraph, college leads to increased knowledge, which leads to power, which in the long run will give you the upper-hand in your chosen career field. Also, attending college will not just allow you to “learn things to make a living, but also learning things to enable you to do things with your life, to enable you to find interests and pursuits that may in some way or another expand the way we see things." (Value of College Extends Beyond Paycheck)

                                           photo credit: Illinois Springfield via photopin cc

Another reason why college is beneficial is because it gives you experience. It trains you to use your mind in ways you never thought you could. “College can't serve you well without challenging you to integrate information and skills in ways you haven't before, and to apply the results to problems that may not yield clear and simple answers” Don't Miss The College Forest for the Career Trees. All in all, college makes you test yourself beyond measure. It prepares you to live as a responsible and knowledgeable citizen that can change the world by obtaining your own knowledge and putting it to good use.