I’ve been a student for somewhere around a decade of my adult life and taught some college classes.
There is a lot of things I like about higher-education:
- Getting a well-rounded education and learning about a wide variety of topics that can make you a better person
- Improving a huge variety of skills: critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, writing, interacting with people, grit and determination, etc.
- Training for job skills and other ways to contribute to society
- Being surrounded by people you can learn from
- Some professors are just really good at what they do and change students’ lives
- Learning how to keep learning on your own and what questions to explore
- Learning how to become a better person in difficult circumstnaces
There are also things I don’t particularly like:
- Underpaid teachers, particularly adjunct positions
- Many teachers with limited pedagogical training and poor pedagogical techniques
- Class size minimums that force large class sizes
- Grades (grades mean very little, and yet are so important)
- Large expenses for students for tuition, fees, textbooks, etc.
- Large student debt without a clear way to pay it back
- Bias and ideologies, limitations on academic freedon
- The constant feeling of stress and burnout from both teachers and students
- The feeling that schools sometimes don’t really care about students
Higher education has enabled me to become a better version of myself and given me opportunities and skills to help others. It’s been worth it to learn and grow and be in that environment.
But I get frustrated sometimes too. There is no perfect school, and no way to build a perfect school. It’s just messy, with some good things and some bad things thrown in there.
I want my kids to go and get a college education, but they need to be smart about it too: don’t go into debt you can’t pay back easily. Remember the values that you have and set good goals and work to achieve them. Find good friends and people that will help you become better. Know that college won’t be perfect, but you can still take charge of your own learning and get what you need to out of it. It’s also okay to fail sometimes, and to take breaks, and to figure out your own path.
Heather Hoyt 