School's In

Posted:
September 1, 2009
Comments:
3

School’s In

I’m back in school.

I love school… really I do. I enjoy expanding my talents, exploring new things, and especially meeting new people. However, the longer I’m there the more I realize how true this is:
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Already this semester I’ve had professors approach me with questions about the cutting edge of their own industry.  Ironically, it’s those professors that will give me the B’s and C’s because I refuse to do their busy work.  I mean, I have better things to do… like network on Twitter.

I still haven’t bought my books, because I can’t justify dumping $300+ on outdated texts that will do me little to no good.

Maybe I need to change my attitude.  Or maybe it’s time for us to change our perception of what a university education is, and how it should work.

What do you think?

  • http://fakefrowns.wordpress.com Jonathan

    I think that this can be true to a degree. I also think it varies a lot by what you’re studying and how well the place you’re studying at does to create classes that are actually pertinent. When i started at BYU, a lot of the GE classes I had to take would fall under the category of classes i didn’t want to take and won’t help me in the professional world. As i’ve worked my way through things and have started taking lots of the upper level engineering classes, I find that those classes are what I want to take, and they will be very helpful in the professional world. At this point, those classes make up the majority of what I take. So while there is definitely some truth to it, it is definitely exaggerated and it depends a lot on the program you’re in.

  • Jimmy

    The public school system in general is inefficient because it’s designed to make people average at best. It isn’t designed to tailor to an individuals dreams, wants, and interests. Most people seem to look at the modern school system to be a positive thing that gives people direction, an education, and prepares them for the professional world. In some ways that might be true but most of what I know to be true and useful didn’t come from a classroom. It came from reading materials outside of class and learning things firsthand. I’d say most of the stuff I learn in school is useless and some of it is so false it’s borderline propaganda. (Look out world! Jimmy’s gonna home school his kids…)

  • http://john-riley.net jR

    I think you’ll be surprised. Taking classes that seem banal will have the effect of letting you think a lot more broadly later. You may feel that each class is a bunch of crap, the teachers are idiots, and the students are drones, but while you are rolling your eyes and sneering your mouth (which I do pretty much perpetually) you are learning about not just the subjects themselves, but how other people interact with those subjects, how professors communicate ideas, how you respond to classroom sociology, what makes people annoying and dead in the head, and commonalities that connect very distant subjects. It’s training for your brain, and each class gives you a few tools with which to think.

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