This is going to be a bit of a mess. I'm hashing out my thoughts. If you're reading this pre-publish, good luck following it. I can barely follow it.
So, I'm currently sitting in the computer lab of my college and I just overheard two people discussing how unfair it is that their credits didn't transfer. While, I sympathize with their troubles, I feel that they don't really understand the situation.
They're operating under the somewhat idealistic idea that college, like high school, is about learning. They assume that the outside world of money doesn't touch the institution of higher education.
Let me do a little side explanation here.
I am an English major. With a concentration in Creative Writing. Do you know what that spells for me post BA? No job, folks. I have been dealing with the harsh realities of this since my Freshman year.
As a much wiser and older student once said to me, "I'm getting a degree in poverty."
Which is the truth. I didn't make this choice because I wanted to make money. That's not what education is about to me. If I wanted to make money, I would have chosen to be a business major. I can understand the school of thought that says degree = job.
College is supposed to refine the set of skills that you have so that you may go forth in the world and seek out a profession that will pay your bills and that you will enjoy.
That's the idealistic idea of this. You're paying your dues.
"You must invest in the world if you want to see a change in it." - I'm paraphrasing here, but TDKR made a good point.
College isn't supposed to do anything. Students, however, are supposed to immerse themselves into a community of learning. Education for education's sake, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteIf only. :( Unfortunately we live in a world where learning is devalued unless it is a mean to achieve the end aka a job. :(
ReplyDelete