Our education: are we getting enough?
CLOSE YOUR EYES and imagine this: you have a class at 8:30 in the morning—drag—but you have to go. You can’t miss it because you vowed to ace this semester, unlike last. So you finally get there—late, of course—sit down, pull out your laptop and get ready to take some rockin' notes. But then—the prof is monotonously reading off the slides! Slides that you also realize are posted online! Then you check out the syllabus: midterm 25 per cent, essay 35 per cent, and final 40 per cent. Same as always. So of course you don’t go to class, you party all semester long, you give it one serious all-nighter the day before the midterm and final, and bang—a solid B+.
This is what you get for close to $5000 a year: no challenge. There's no intellect nor attendance needed on your part, just some slick slide memorizing skills.
This is not right. How many times have you finished a course and thought, “wow, I truly learned something valuable, my debating skills have seriously improved, I have conquered my fear of public speaking, and I have developed a more creative way of solving problems?” Why is it that so many people can get straight Bs without attending class or even truly understanding concepts? And finally, why do we keep hearing people and sometimes even professors say things like, “you won’t use most of the stuff you learn during undergrad in real life?” It is because there is something severely wrong with the education system.
It is fair to say that most students go through university in order to improve their prospects in the workforce. Our society favors applicants who have acquired a university degree, despite the fact that an undergraduate degree may not mean much in terms of ability, character, or relevant knowledge. For the years and money students dedicate to university, it should be more worthwhile.
An education should really challenge a student’s intellect, encourage creativity, and teach both the theoretical and practical aspects of a field. The education system should be engineered to build characters, develop individuality, and encourage skills in debate and public speaking. Professors should be more practical than purely theoretical, and they should make lectures engaging, thought provoking, and challenging, so that students feel the need to go to class.
University should really, and I mean really, prepare students for jobs in the real world. Don’t get me wrong, some professors do implement ways that promote creativity and prepare you for the real world, but from experience, most don’t.
Students spend so much time and money on university that they deserve a much better and more in-depth education. Facts memorized from slides isn't knowledge, and it certainly isn't an education. I do not want to go out of my way to fish out events that require creativity and innovation on campus. I want it built within the education system. I want something I can be proud of—something I can confidently take with me after graduation. I want an experience about which I can honestly say, “that was truly worth it.”
