Last class, we watched part of a documentary about higher education in America. The film wasn't very flattering of our system: grade inflation, apathy, and uninterested teachers seem to plague the system. It's interesting to consider reality of college verse the perception of college.
I'm not sure about everyone else, but when I was in high school, there was a leviathan perception of college. On one end, it was a non-stop party. Drinking alcohol, participating in drug use, and rampant sex were all suppose to be part of your college experience. On the other hand, we were suppose to better ourselves: become worldly individuals with the ability to think our way through problems that before would be unsolvable; we would "find" ourselves, and do not forget how much work college was suppose to be.
Did this perception hold up to reality? Probably more so in the first description than the second. Westminster kids like to party, and school really isn't that hard. Maybe this is just personal experience, but I have a few friends who are more likely to snort cocaine on a Tuesday instead of studying for their test they have the next day. Yet, college students are lionized in the our society: we are the future; we will discover things never before thought of, and while our political views may be a little radical at times, we will change the world. By no means does one instance of a friend doing drugs over studying account for, or represent, college students across the board, but it is observable behavior present in more than just one individual.
Should we talk about the other perception now? Am I a better person now that I'm in college? Probably not. Actually, I'm less aware of what is going on in the world. Everyday in high school I would read the New York Times, that doesn't happen often now-a-days. Yes, I read snippets of articles and listen to NPR and Democracy Now when I feel up for it, but to say I better understand the world and am I better person because of college would be fallacious in the least.
This brings me to a point that I think is important to consider in our education system: grades. What are they and why do they exist? Are they necessary for us to understand and learn material? No, of course not. That would imply that I could not learn anything outside of school because the institution of grades is not present. We know this isn't true. So if they don't help us learn, at least in any measurable quantity, why do they exist? To compare us with other students. If the education system was purely about learning and bettering oneself, grades and comparisons would not be necessary: there would be no reason for grades because the end goal of education would be to learn, not to see who has learned "better," (assuming this is something that can even be measured by grades). The absence of learning as a major goal in higher education seems even more prevalent given a recent study published that found college students actually learn very little in the first two years of college. I'm not saying that grades are the reason why colleges have been failing to adequately teach students, but simply making the statement that education seems to be less important than grades. The problem seems to be a lack of challenge in classes and too much emphasis on grades.
Source: http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125979/
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