I hate university.
I absolutely and positively hate university.
Why? I have learned nothing of value yet. I am at midterms in my second semester and I have learned nothing that has any value to me whatsoever. It is not that I am in the wrong program or at the wrong school, I love philosophy and psychology. It is just I am surrounded my professors who do not care about us. I am in an environment that does not support learning.
High schools and primary schools have a pretty good grasp on engaging students but just because we are paying thousands and thousands of dollars every year to learn, doesn't mean we are automatically engaged.
Sitting passively in a lecture hall isn't helping anyone. The material is dull, the professor isn't engaging and the slideshow really isn't helping anything.
I am bored. This is boring.
What I have learned about university is:
1) You learn EVERYTHING about one course from ONE book. This makes no sense. You have one textbook, maybe a few other books for one class and you are expected to learn everything about that one area or subject of study from those few materials. This doesn't seem very fair. The courses could be better constructed without following the textbook, or better than that, write the textbook to be tailored to a better course, Mr. Doctor.
2) Professors pretend to know everything. Sure, they know everything about their own subject but they assume this makes them better than most others. Of course, this is a generalization, there are some professors that aren't like this but, the truth is many of my professors and others I have met just seem to act like they know all.
3) You need a degree to do anything of value to earn money. I am in university and I can't even get a part time job at the mall. I've been searching for months.
4) Your program is not in the slightest bit tailored to you like high school was. High school had levelling to help you adjust to the material. University doesn't have this. Of course, you are expected to have a degree of intellect if you are in university. There is academic support for people who need tutoring. But what about me? I do not learn by reading or sitting in lecture, which is what university is. I learn by self-teaching myself. I learn with assignments. I learn with experience and actually doing things. But I can't learn that way to get my BAs in psych and philosophy.
5) You are an undergrad. Not a genius. You don't have a BA or BSc, or whatever you are aiming for. You are practically a child compared to people with PhDs.
I hate this. I have learned nothing, yet I hold around a 75% average. This tells you what university is like. There is the odd lesson or lecture that naturally engages me but for the information that is dull and needs to be learned, there has to be an alternate way.
Everyone hates studying. It is literally suffering for me. I feel like I am going to die. I go into mental breakdowns almost every time I try to study.
It is just not my cup of tea.
I absolutely and positively hate university.
Why? I have learned nothing of value yet. I am at midterms in my second semester and I have learned nothing that has any value to me whatsoever. It is not that I am in the wrong program or at the wrong school, I love philosophy and psychology. It is just I am surrounded my professors who do not care about us. I am in an environment that does not support learning.
High schools and primary schools have a pretty good grasp on engaging students but just because we are paying thousands and thousands of dollars every year to learn, doesn't mean we are automatically engaged.
Sitting passively in a lecture hall isn't helping anyone. The material is dull, the professor isn't engaging and the slideshow really isn't helping anything.
I am bored. This is boring.
What I have learned about university is:
1) You learn EVERYTHING about one course from ONE book. This makes no sense. You have one textbook, maybe a few other books for one class and you are expected to learn everything about that one area or subject of study from those few materials. This doesn't seem very fair. The courses could be better constructed without following the textbook, or better than that, write the textbook to be tailored to a better course, Mr. Doctor.
2) Professors pretend to know everything. Sure, they know everything about their own subject but they assume this makes them better than most others. Of course, this is a generalization, there are some professors that aren't like this but, the truth is many of my professors and others I have met just seem to act like they know all.
3) You need a degree to do anything of value to earn money. I am in university and I can't even get a part time job at the mall. I've been searching for months.
4) Your program is not in the slightest bit tailored to you like high school was. High school had levelling to help you adjust to the material. University doesn't have this. Of course, you are expected to have a degree of intellect if you are in university. There is academic support for people who need tutoring. But what about me? I do not learn by reading or sitting in lecture, which is what university is. I learn by self-teaching myself. I learn with assignments. I learn with experience and actually doing things. But I can't learn that way to get my BAs in psych and philosophy.
5) You are an undergrad. Not a genius. You don't have a BA or BSc, or whatever you are aiming for. You are practically a child compared to people with PhDs.
I hate this. I have learned nothing, yet I hold around a 75% average. This tells you what university is like. There is the odd lesson or lecture that naturally engages me but for the information that is dull and needs to be learned, there has to be an alternate way.
Everyone hates studying. It is literally suffering for me. I feel like I am going to die. I go into mental breakdowns almost every time I try to study.
It is just not my cup of tea.
Sarah, I enjoy reading your irreverent critiques of university life. They make a lot of sense. One would think that institutions of higher learning should be on the cutting edge of instruction; with engaging professors and creative teaching approaches which accommodate for multiple learning styles. Clearly this is not the case.
ReplyDeleteYou would think. Especially with the amount of tuition each student pays towards learning. Learning is technically something our brains do for free. It is just having to prove it at an institution that makes it frustrating with expenses and professors who do not have a grasp on how to engage their students, if even motivation to do so.
DeleteAgreed. It's not like the university is going to refund your tuition if the professors are mediocre or incompetent at doing what they get paid to do.
ReplyDelete