I finished my undergraduate degree in 1999 and now, having returned to the same University for work and graduate school, I'm amazed at how things have changed. As a side benefit of working for the University, you can take any class you want without charge. I have been extremely free in using this benefit.
However, I learned very quickly that undergraduate courses were a waste of time. Not because of the material presented but because of the teaching methods. Most classes offer gratuitous amounts of extra credit and assign group projects with abandon. In the first case, this permits students to avoid feeling the full brunt of their excess drinking by allowing them to "make up" for poor performance with busy work. In the second case, it allows for students who would care not to do the work to be carried along by those who do care about their grades. In both cases, the bottom-feeders are not compelled to feel the full force of personal responsibility.
It's easy to blame the administration for treating students like children. However, that might not be entirely fair. Many students simply refuse to take responsibility for themselves and they are looking for the University to be their "momma." They've spent years being told that every problem is someone else's responsibility in the public schools. Sex Ed is a great example. If you can't manage to get to the corner Walgreen's and buy a pack of condoms for yourself, perhaps you ought not be having sex. Instead, the schools say, "well here you go; we know that trip of a few miles is too much so we'll give you condoms instead. Thank the American taxpayer."
Another example is all the complaining that university tuition is so expensive. It seems that all students are looking for is a handout for someone else to pay the bill. Granted, I don't pay tuition now, but I did make sure my tuition was covered when I was an undergraduate. The primary beneficiary of a college education is the degree recipient. It's almost a guarantee of higher earnings in life. Why shouldn't they pay?
Article comments
1 - Matthew Milam
"Another example is all the complaining that university tuition is so expensive, it seems that all students are looking for is a handout for someone else to pay the bill."
If someone told you that they would pay your college bill for you, you mean you would rather pay for it yourself than let someone else pay for it?
Why not ask the other professionals who pay for it themsleves and see if they REALLY wanna pay $100 a month? They probably won't tell you the truth, but they'd probably say hell yeah.
You must have a ton of money every month
2 - Sister Ray
I'm beginning to think it would be better for high school graduates to go to some practical, vocational school to learn a trade, then read up on the liberal arts on their own time. College has turned into expensive goofing off.
3 - Maurice
Well written, John. You make great points. Thank god that is all long behind me.
4 - Michael J. West
This kind of behavior is inevitable; moreover, it will always be inevitable for people of that age range.
The reason? Kids--and yes, that's what they are, even at 21 (Hell, especially at 21)--are free of parental and other authority, surrounded almost exclusively by hundreds of their peers, and in the midst of a world of things they've basically been forbidden to do all their lives up to that point. To indulge in sex and booze to some extent is--God, some people are going to crucify me for saying this--healthy. It's young people stretching their legs, testing the waters of freedom. And believe it or not, the people I knew who DIDN'T have debaucherous times in college, refrained because they had gotten the debauchery out of their system in high school.
I'm perfectly aware that this sounds like me making excuses, etc. etc., but it's the God's truth. People between the ages of 18 to 22 are not emotionally mature, and despite our lip service to the contrary, we don't expect them to be. We expect and hope for them to be mature when they LEAVE college, and part of that genuinely is engaging in stupid and childish and irresponsible behaviors: that's the only way you can really learn what "stupid," "childish," and "irresponsible" really mean.
5 - Arch Conservative
Well is it any wonder that this is the case when you consider college is run by left wingers.
I mean the American left and personal responsibility are rapidly becoming mutually exclusive terms.
College students get 4 years of left wing theoretical moral relativist bullshit shoved down thier throats day in and day out and then we wonder why they're incapble of taking responsibility for themselves?
6 - Lady Dragonfyre
John:
I finished my undergraduate degree in 1999 and now, having returned to the same University for work and graduate school, I'm amazed at how things have changed.
I was in the same situation. I don't think it's the KIDS who have changed; you have. Plus, you become a LOT more observant of the student body as a whole when you're on the other side of the fence.
The truth is, a human being needs to mature and educate his common sense BEFORE he educates his mind. Otherwise, that person will gain neither common sense nor an education.
A professor of mine once told me that you're not truly educated until you realize that what you DO know pales in comparison to what you have yet to learn.
7 - SFC SKI
It's natural for kids to bust loose away in college, but it seems like a lot of young adults like the common sense and foresight to consider the consequences of their actions before taking them.
Then again, here in Iraq there are 19 and 20 year old's who have tremendous responsibilities and carry them out commendably. A lot of them will leave active duty and go to college, it will be interesting to see how they interact with their peers. Some of the Soldiers I work with tell me that they left college in the first or secondf year for a variety of reason, some purely financial, but more often because they were too young and undisciplined to meet the scheduling and work requirements an adult needs to be successful in college. School administrators need to place the responsibility for academic performance on the shoulders of the students.
8 - Baronius
I am about to sound like a 70-year-old. Here goes.
I keep hearing that kids have to grow up younger than ever. Balderdash! My dad was a wage-earner at 16. I was irresponsible until I was 20. The new generation is coasting through high school, undergraduate programs, and sometimes grad school. They have their first taste of responsibility around 23-24.
"Kids are exposed to sex younger than ever", supposedly. To the extent that's true, it means that we adults aren't doing our jobs in raising children right. Ditto with exposure to violence, drugs, et cetera. But a lot of the problem is that we're exposing our kids to consequence-free sex. Michael says that irresponsibility is inevitable at that age, but my dad's generation didn't have the time to be irresponsible.
Wow, just writing that gave me arthritis and white hair, but I really believe that it's true. Sarge's experience is probably closer to that of the WWII generation, and it shows that human nature hasn't changed.
9 - Clavos
Sarge,
Some of the Soldiers I work with tell me that they left college in the first or secondf year for a variety of reason, some purely financial, but more often because they were too young and undisciplined to meet the scheduling and work requirements an adult needs to be successful in college.
That's exactly what I went through back in the sixties.
Went to college out of high school; blew it because of immaturity, started to work and got drafted.
After a year in the Army, my entire unit was sent to Vietnam by LBJ.
When my year tour was over, I was too short to reassign, so was REFRADED and applied to college.
I was admitted on probation because of my previous crappy grades, but I had done a lot of growing up in the military, and I got through with honors level grades in less than three years
Didn't get the honors sash though, because all the Ds and Fs from the first attempt still had to be averaged in.
10 - Michael J. West
Michael says that irresponsibility is inevitable at that age, but my dad's generation didn't have the time to be irresponsible.
Your dad's generation--assuming we're talking about the WW2 generation--was frankly a spectacularly isolated exception. The generation before it was the flappers, the speakeasy crowds, the Jazz Age. The one before that was the one that made people think Prohibition was a good idea.
Even the most reckless kids grow up when confronted with grave, immovable circumstances. (Think of Shakespeare and Prince Hal in Henry IV). And in many of these kids' cases, those circumstances occur when student loans come due. But barring that, in what we could reasonably call "normalcy" given its prevalence, kids just out from under their parents are immature, stupid, and a bit wild. That's the nature of the beast.
11 - Baronius
Michael - The one before that freed the slaves.
Of course, we're both talking in generalizations here. The WWII era had bums, and the Vietnam era had heroes. But there does seem to be steel in the character of young people, when called upon. Society shouldn't be afraid to make demands of them.
12 - Franco
Clavos,
This is Franco from the "Is Chavez Crazy" thread. Excuse my interruption into this thread, but I can't load back into the Chavez thread. Dave’s original article loads just fine, but there is nothing at the bottom of it and not one comment will load. Did it end? Is the thread maybe to large now for my computer to load, or.........what?
Franco
13 - Clavos
Possibly, Franco. But try hitting your reload button after it's loaded as far as it will go...sometimes, when they get real long, I have to do that. Do you have dial-up or broadband (DSL or Cable)?
It's still there--it's up to comment #448 now.