It has become a societal norm to go to college or university after high school. Is this necessarily a bad norm though? In my opinion, not at all. Education and learning are the most important things in one's life. It's all we really do. We learn things all of the time. We learn to communicate with others, we learn to do new things, everything we do has been learnt at one point in our lives. But the problem is that universities and colleges aren't as focused upon this idea of "learning" anymore.
Anyways, let me approach the actual question. Are you sure you want to go to post-secondary?
Reasons to go:
You really cannot get a job without it... that is a lie. You can. Many people do. You can even probably find a fairly good job without it, but you do need to make connections to get a job. So unless you have connections before entering post secondary to give you an amazing job in which you can still move up in to better salaries and this job will make you happy, you are set. But as it stands, more people do not have these connections, so you need to go to university/college to make these connections.
It actually isn't that bad. Despite what I said earlier, you do learn some valuable lessons. Although considering the fact that I am in english/psych/philosophy you can't do much with those degrees without a PhD unless you want to be a teacher. So I have learned valuable lessons but the classes and programs that teach you these valuable lessons aren't going to get you as good of a job. Liberal education doesn't prepare you for the monetary world we live in. I was representing the english department at my school and a grandmother was finding out information with her granddaughter about the program because she is a really good writer but she wants her to get a job and was wondering what a BA in english could do for it. I told it to her straight up, "Not much". It is an extremely valuable education... just not in terms of money.
It is a norm. Simply, post-secondary is just something we do. Although your liberal education may teach you to operate outside of some of the norms, and I am also telling you to, both of us will also tell you that is really hard. Acting against the majority is hard. This is why you should go to school after high school.
Reasons not to go. Instead of giving you actual reasons, I'll just tell you what I have learned so far in university.
1) University is completely illogical. I want to become an english & philosophy high school teacher and I am planning on doing a double major in English & psychology with a minor in philosophy. At my school I need to have 6 credits of science. So to attain my BAs in english and psychology to become a high school teacher I am taking geology. This makes SO much sense... not.
2) I have learned how to take bubble sheet tests. I am learning how to learn. I don't learn the material; I learn what the professor wants and I give him/her that said thing. So if the prof is going to give me a multiple choice test I do not study the material to learn it, I study the material in a very minor way in which I slightly understand it enough to be able to know which answer is correct. Can I give you specific definitions of things from psychology? Nope. But I can tell you the correct answer if you give me 4 options. It is much, much easier. Learning nothing is much easier.
3) It is all about money. This was one of the first lessons I learned in my english lecture. Universities and colleges live off of your money, that is how they stay around. But they really do not care about the individual students' success, even if they say they do. Well, they care about the top students because they want them to go out and advertise the university for them to get more students to give them money. University is a business.
Anyways, let me approach the actual question. Are you sure you want to go to post-secondary?
Reasons to go:
You really cannot get a job without it... that is a lie. You can. Many people do. You can even probably find a fairly good job without it, but you do need to make connections to get a job. So unless you have connections before entering post secondary to give you an amazing job in which you can still move up in to better salaries and this job will make you happy, you are set. But as it stands, more people do not have these connections, so you need to go to university/college to make these connections.
It actually isn't that bad. Despite what I said earlier, you do learn some valuable lessons. Although considering the fact that I am in english/psych/philosophy you can't do much with those degrees without a PhD unless you want to be a teacher. So I have learned valuable lessons but the classes and programs that teach you these valuable lessons aren't going to get you as good of a job. Liberal education doesn't prepare you for the monetary world we live in. I was representing the english department at my school and a grandmother was finding out information with her granddaughter about the program because she is a really good writer but she wants her to get a job and was wondering what a BA in english could do for it. I told it to her straight up, "Not much". It is an extremely valuable education... just not in terms of money.
It is a norm. Simply, post-secondary is just something we do. Although your liberal education may teach you to operate outside of some of the norms, and I am also telling you to, both of us will also tell you that is really hard. Acting against the majority is hard. This is why you should go to school after high school.
Reasons not to go. Instead of giving you actual reasons, I'll just tell you what I have learned so far in university.
1) University is completely illogical. I want to become an english & philosophy high school teacher and I am planning on doing a double major in English & psychology with a minor in philosophy. At my school I need to have 6 credits of science. So to attain my BAs in english and psychology to become a high school teacher I am taking geology. This makes SO much sense... not.
2) I have learned how to take bubble sheet tests. I am learning how to learn. I don't learn the material; I learn what the professor wants and I give him/her that said thing. So if the prof is going to give me a multiple choice test I do not study the material to learn it, I study the material in a very minor way in which I slightly understand it enough to be able to know which answer is correct. Can I give you specific definitions of things from psychology? Nope. But I can tell you the correct answer if you give me 4 options. It is much, much easier. Learning nothing is much easier.
3) It is all about money. This was one of the first lessons I learned in my english lecture. Universities and colleges live off of your money, that is how they stay around. But they really do not care about the individual students' success, even if they say they do. Well, they care about the top students because they want them to go out and advertise the university for them to get more students to give them money. University is a business.
So should you go?
It is your choice.
I would tell you not to go, but then again, I am not dropping out because it is all bullshit. Why? Because I have a goal.
I want to become a high school teacher. I want to become a leader. I want to become a philosopher for education. I want to show people how messed up the education system really is. The easiest method would be to finish university, word towards my MA and PhD in education and then get right into the belly of the beast of education to fix things.
I just haven't decided whether I want to fix high school or university education systems.
I keep using this word "fix" to describe what I want to do as if things are already broken. It's a weird word-choice. I don't necessarily want to fix things, rather, I want to change things. Not for the better, not for the worse, just for the logical. What is happening now makes no sense to me. People are doing things they hate to do more things they hate just so they can earn money. All of this unhappiness is unsettling to me. I also hate happiness, well, I don't HATE happiness, I just think that there should be a limit to happiness. I just think individuals are too stressed in society and they are too stupid to operate outside of the norms so what I need to do is change the norms so their stress levels go down.
If that makes any sense.
What is your opinion of post-secondary education? Are you going? Are you in it? Did you go?
