Spring Break
College: Decision to be made by students
Shea Pedersen
Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Forum
In a recent edition of The Oregonian, there was a guest column by Ken Moyle regarding college students in America - in other words, us.
Moyle wrote that more than half of the student population should not even be enrolled in college because we seem to "not be here for academic or motivational reasons." He added that most college students are wasting their time and money, and that the Big Joke among teachers is that they pretend to teach while we pretend to learn.
However, everyone I know is aware that "college" does not refer to just a place where parents pay for their kids to go and drink at for four years.
There are sure to be screaming, stumbling students from campus all the way down to the Willamette River on Thursday to Saturday nights, but one can bet that come Monday all the lecture halls will be full of those same people. Everybody needs a break sometimes, and just because our generation's way of releasing stress revolves more around video games and partying with friends than reading a book does not mean we don't give attention to our studies.
It is exasperating for those of us who are investing ourselves wholeheartedly into achieving something we find worthwhile to be belittled by dogmatic adults looking down their noses at us just because we go about our time differently, because in the end, education is what one makes of it.
The majority of those enrolled in higher education are in fact taking advantage of it; for example, over 45 percent of college graduates get a job right after they receive their diploma, and over 70 percent find one within the next two years.
But within this argument, the question arises of whether or not graduating college or sheer talent is really the biggest reason behind success in life, and with each slip of the economy, many scholars are being forced to drop out or take a second look at what their education means to them.
It is true that huge profits are made by those running the business of higher education, causing these business people to convince everyone that we all must go to college, regardless of what we want to do with our lives. In reality, not every person's dream needs nurturing and not every talent needs instruction.
Moyle wrote that more than half of the student population should not even be enrolled in college because we seem to "not be here for academic or motivational reasons." He added that most college students are wasting their time and money, and that the Big Joke among teachers is that they pretend to teach while we pretend to learn.
However, everyone I know is aware that "college" does not refer to just a place where parents pay for their kids to go and drink at for four years.
There are sure to be screaming, stumbling students from campus all the way down to the Willamette River on Thursday to Saturday nights, but one can bet that come Monday all the lecture halls will be full of those same people. Everybody needs a break sometimes, and just because our generation's way of releasing stress revolves more around video games and partying with friends than reading a book does not mean we don't give attention to our studies.
It is exasperating for those of us who are investing ourselves wholeheartedly into achieving something we find worthwhile to be belittled by dogmatic adults looking down their noses at us just because we go about our time differently, because in the end, education is what one makes of it.
The majority of those enrolled in higher education are in fact taking advantage of it; for example, over 45 percent of college graduates get a job right after they receive their diploma, and over 70 percent find one within the next two years.
But within this argument, the question arises of whether or not graduating college or sheer talent is really the biggest reason behind success in life, and with each slip of the economy, many scholars are being forced to drop out or take a second look at what their education means to them.
It is true that huge profits are made by those running the business of higher education, causing these business people to convince everyone that we all must go to college, regardless of what we want to do with our lives. In reality, not every person's dream needs nurturing and not every talent needs instruction.
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