Are students without the support structure capable of getting a worthwhile degree?
Students today can choose courses on prostitutes or “queer gardens”; on brain science or ancient democracies. But how is a freshman supposed to figure out whether it’s better to take the class on women in the European Union or the one on the Korean War — to know which is most important, which will be of lasting value and which would form a good foundation for the study of other subjects?
As Mark Bauerlein of Emory University notes, “You’re handing the choice to people who don’t know what to choose. They don’t think five years ahead and say, This will be better for me when I’m 25. The kind of discretion that the student-centered progressives want to give is actually damaging to students.”
It’s “a catastrophe,” says Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institution. “On the one hand, colleges have abandoned any actual structure,” so kids need help figuring out how to put together a serious plan for graduating. “But the faculty aren’t there. They’re off studying ‘queer gardens.’” He calls it a maze — and one where “those who come from poor academic backgrounds will do even less well.”
I can laugh about it now, but I had no idea of what college life was about. In high school, I didn't know that a BA was a 4-year degree. I thought a couple years of college would be fine to be a systems analyst. This despite the fact that I always wanted to go to the University of Michigan (based solely on an 8th-grade teacher's recommendation to my parents).
And when it was time to apply for college, I only applied to the University of Michigan. It cost money to send test results and applications to schools, I figured. Why do that when I'm going to Michigan?
Seriously, I had no idea that the university could turn me down. I had high SATs and ACTs, so what more was there? You apply, pay, and then go--like visiting a store and buying their product. You don't worry that the Ford dealership is going to turn you down. I hand wrote my application essay the night before I mailed the application in. I have no idea what I wrote about. I'm actually kind of curious about that.
And once in school, there was no hand-holding about what to study. Fortunately, after that unfortunate detour as a computer science major, I took courses in political science and history that required me to read a lot, think a lot, and write a lot. I had no interest in taking soft courses that graded my feelings. Heck, I took pride that I took conventional courses to meet my non-humanities distribution requirements (no "rocks for jocks" courses for me): calculus, programming, astronomy, and physics.
So I was perfectly prepared to handle a career that required lots of reading, lots of thinking, and lots of writing. Even though it was in areas almost completely separate from what I'd studied. As I tell my children, learning how to learn is the most important thing you should get out of school.
And as a bonus, even without some mythical counselor (who I never saw in all my years of college), I didn't even have the problem of borrowing too much to get my degrees. I really just don't get why people choose soft courses and then borrow tons of money to pay for them. Even when I was a computer science major and still 17 years old (God, that was a long time ago), I turned down school offers of guaranteed student loans because I didn't think it was a good idea to owe that much money after graduating.
Needless to say, I didn't abandon that fiscal thinking when I became a political science major (my history major was achieved almost accidentally). I worked a lot of hours while in school. Which meant that the few loans I did have (I think I got by with borrowing less than $4,000 for my BA, if you can imagine that) actually went to tuition and fees rather than for the alcohol and video games (and rent, utilities, and food, of course) I spent my money on. If you've spent your student loans on that stuff, I'd savor that bite of pizza and gulp of beer, because you'll be paying for them for many decades to come.
So apparently, I avoided getting the shaft despite the way the system is set up. Is it really so exceptional for me to have acted like an adult who can look ahead a few years to ponder consequences? Seriously? I owe a big thank you to my parents for doing something right, I guess (and I am thankful for my parents, by the way). Despite no experience and no real preparation for making these adult decisions, when I had to make them I actually just assumed I had to make the choices--and then made good choices. Well, I made plenty of bad choices, too, but they were tactical rather than operational or strategic. None were fatal to my long-term future.
I would love to believe that I am so exceptional that even in a rigged college system I did just fine and actually earned an education I could afford that prepared me for a career that I enjoyed. But my self esteem is fine, so I don't need that kind of ego boost.
All this talk of 25 (years old) being the new 15 is just ridiculous. Are we seriously saying that we now have to provide a life education as well as an academic education before someone turns 18, or we can't expect the new adult to be an adult? Really? Do your freaking laundry and cook your freaking meals! Argghhhhhh! Must. Control. Fist. of. Death.
God almighty, grow the ef up! You're 18. You proudly voted for President Obama in the belief that your far-sighted analytical abilities made this man the best president for our future. So take those skills that you used to make the biggest choice your country offers you for the future of over 300 million Americans--and the world beyond--and use them to make the relatively insignificant choices of what classes to take and how much you should borrow to take them.
And wash your whites separately from your colors, while you're at it!
I'm sorry, but we just expect exceptionally little of our young adults. I wasn't exceptional. I just did what a man has to do. God help us if that really is exceptional.
