This morning the NCAA announced that it lacked the power to punish the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for running bogus academic programs for two decades to keep athletes on the playing fields. (See https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/10/13/unc-off-the-hook-for-academic-fraud.) According to the ruling, these “student-athletes” had violated no rules by taking these fake courses, as the university itself had designed the program for them.
Reading this article made me think about college students in general, including those young people who once attended my seminars as homeschoolers and who are now in college. We may condemn the athletes for cheating the system and participating in classes that demanded nothing from them, but what about college students in general?
Reading this article made me think about college students in general, including those young people who once attended my seminars as homeschoolers and who are now in college. We may condemn the athletes for cheating the system and participating in classes that demanded nothing from them, but what about college students in general?
Google “college students studying less,” and you’ll find article after article, poll after poll, showing that college students not only study less than they did just twenty-five years ago, but that on average they now spend less time on academics than they did in high school. These figures usually include time spent in class as well as the university library. Moreover, less than half of all college students earn their degree in four years.
If you are reading these words, and if you are a high school senior looking at college or a student enrolled in a university of college, I want to share some thoughts with you.
I’ll begin with a personal experience.
All four of my children earned their degree in four years from a college whose student body numbers just 400 young men and women. All four majored in philosophy. I can’t remember how many times family and friends asked me, “Philosophy? What are they going to do with that when they graduate?”
Here’s what they did with that degree.
My daughter, the oldest of her siblings, is today a stay-at-home mother of seven, who spends every day planning, organizing, and working herself to the point of exhaustion for her family, all the while taking great joy in each child.
My oldest son is thirty-two, a father of seven living children, and an attorney who now owns and operates four law offices in North Carolina stretching from Wilmington to Waynesville.
My second son, father of three, works as a salesman for a high-powered tech company, which acts as a middleman between software companies and the federal government.
My youngest son, father of one living son, taught himself the skills to build and promote websites, and now operates his own business.
I repeat: all four majored in philosophy. And if you asked them whether philosophy helped them in any way, they would tell you they use what they learned all the time.
Philosophy taught them how to approach a problem, how to argue dispassionately, how to view people and the world around them, how to read carefully, how to organize an argument on paper and put the words into clear, strong prose.
Any class, and nearly any major, can do the same for you. Mathematics, biology, English literature, French, American history: throw yourselves into these subjects, learn the material, and you are adding to your skills and intellectual capabilities.
To make this approach work, however, you need to investigate the school you attend, the offerings of the department in which you intend to major, and the individual classes you take each semester. If a professor has a reputation for demanding little of students, then you are cheating yourself by enrolling in that class. If on the other hand a professor demands excellence and hard work from students, then that’s the class in which you should enroll.
If you can learn to analyze various problems, if you enhance your reading skills, and if you can write well, your major--again with a few exceptions--will matter little in your future. Five years after graduation, employers will care less about your major than your talents and skills. Companies want employees who can think and who can communicate well. The lack of these abilities costs American corporations tens of billions of dollars every year. (Google “American businesses lose billions because of poor writing” and prepare to be shocked.)
If you are spending most of your time on campus drinking, hanging out with friends, or playing video games, you may be having a grand time, but you’re cheating yourself. You’re wasting your time and money. Entertainment and play have their place, but put those academics first. For most of you, this is the last time in your life when you will have the time and leisure to devote yourselves solely to learning. Once you hit the real world, life sweeps you up and goes very, very fast.
Do this, and you will graduate not only with a storehouse of knowledge but with the skills needed to make your way in the world. Do it not, and you will regret a wasted opportunity that likely will not come again.
If you are reading these words, and if you are a high school senior looking at college or a student enrolled in a university of college, I want to share some thoughts with you.
I’ll begin with a personal experience.
All four of my children earned their degree in four years from a college whose student body numbers just 400 young men and women. All four majored in philosophy. I can’t remember how many times family and friends asked me, “Philosophy? What are they going to do with that when they graduate?”
Here’s what they did with that degree.
My daughter, the oldest of her siblings, is today a stay-at-home mother of seven, who spends every day planning, organizing, and working herself to the point of exhaustion for her family, all the while taking great joy in each child.
My oldest son is thirty-two, a father of seven living children, and an attorney who now owns and operates four law offices in North Carolina stretching from Wilmington to Waynesville.
My second son, father of three, works as a salesman for a high-powered tech company, which acts as a middleman between software companies and the federal government.
My youngest son, father of one living son, taught himself the skills to build and promote websites, and now operates his own business.
I repeat: all four majored in philosophy. And if you asked them whether philosophy helped them in any way, they would tell you they use what they learned all the time.
Philosophy taught them how to approach a problem, how to argue dispassionately, how to view people and the world around them, how to read carefully, how to organize an argument on paper and put the words into clear, strong prose.
Any class, and nearly any major, can do the same for you. Mathematics, biology, English literature, French, American history: throw yourselves into these subjects, learn the material, and you are adding to your skills and intellectual capabilities.
To make this approach work, however, you need to investigate the school you attend, the offerings of the department in which you intend to major, and the individual classes you take each semester. If a professor has a reputation for demanding little of students, then you are cheating yourself by enrolling in that class. If on the other hand a professor demands excellence and hard work from students, then that’s the class in which you should enroll.
If you can learn to analyze various problems, if you enhance your reading skills, and if you can write well, your major--again with a few exceptions--will matter little in your future. Five years after graduation, employers will care less about your major than your talents and skills. Companies want employees who can think and who can communicate well. The lack of these abilities costs American corporations tens of billions of dollars every year. (Google “American businesses lose billions because of poor writing” and prepare to be shocked.)
If you are spending most of your time on campus drinking, hanging out with friends, or playing video games, you may be having a grand time, but you’re cheating yourself. You’re wasting your time and money. Entertainment and play have their place, but put those academics first. For most of you, this is the last time in your life when you will have the time and leisure to devote yourselves solely to learning. Once you hit the real world, life sweeps you up and goes very, very fast.
Do this, and you will graduate not only with a storehouse of knowledge but with the skills needed to make your way in the world. Do it not, and you will regret a wasted opportunity that likely will not come again.
RSS Feed