Teachers and professors often demand students to learn so much material that it causes them to stress over the fact that he doesn't want to flunk. Instead of causing this, they should be able to create environments and relationships for learning, making students feel comfortable and eager to learn. This should help us, the students, develop understanding and judgement that will enable action.
Usually, when Senior Year arrives, most students don't know what to study. A possible reason for this may be that they haven't had the opportunity to stop and get to know themselves, what do they feel passionate about. College opens so many doors to you that high school didn't. For once, you have the liberty to make decisions not being forced to let others make them for you.
Being educated is to know a little bit of everything, what is out there. For example, the School of General Studies in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, focuses on the formation of the student, by "teaching and interdisciplinary research, integration of knowledge and artistic creation. Faculty enriches the cultural and intellectual environment of the University through co - curricular activities, service liaises with the community and develops partnerships and international alliances. Therefore, it promotes the ability to know, evaluate and act within Puerto Rican, Caribbean and global reality."
You don't learn every tool you will need to survive life in a book. There are two things you take with you when you die: the knowledge you acquired throughout your life and the experiences. Keep that in mind.
If you have a little time, please hear these words of our soon to become former President Barack Obama says about education.
Erika, this post couldn't describe me more as a student than it already has. The phrase that impacted me the most was when you said that Senior students reached the twelve grade without knowing what to study in college. It may be true, many years of studying, for what? The minority or at least me, only think about the near future and that is a problem. That may be why, when Senior Year arrived, I had no clue what to do with my professional life. I like the explanation that you gave to the cause of that problem. I can certainly relate to it. Also, I would like to add that education sometimes distract us from the other important things, like emotional and physical health.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you when you said that students often do not know what they would really like to study. Therefore, they might change concentrations many times. It is definitely true that the root of this problem is the lack of knowledge of oneself. Furthermore, this lack of self-knowledge is often hindered even further when parents insist that their children should study a certain profession. At least this was my case, before entering the university, I felt a strong pressure from my parents to study biology. However, I did the right thing, I ignored my parents' preference, and, before starting classes on August, I changed to Political Science, which fits my tastes better than Biology.
ReplyDeleteI know that I, for one, had no idea what I wanted to study in twelfth grade. I just lucked out and found something that intrigues me in what I'm studying now.
ReplyDeleteBut I know dozens of people that feel somewhat resentful of the education they received from middle school up because they were never allowed to be themselves. Like you said, they weren't allowed to explore who they were as people. And it's frustrating when people insist on putting more importance on diplomas rather than intelligence gained through experiences.
And I loved your last bit about what you take with you in death. We don't worldly possessions when we die. And more people need to take note of that.
It's very true how the pressure of all the work we're supposed to do in school and university only makes us focus on not flunking. This is because of all the stress we're always under. It shouldn't be this way; education shouldn't feel like a prison. I truly believe education should be more than just learning piles of information, sometimes even meaningless for us. No wonder students never know what to choose to study in university, just like you mentioned!
ReplyDelete