Today marks the first day of my twenty-six years of living that I spent time inside a college classroom and on a college campus. (There was one time I attended an Indian classical music concert with my dad at MIT, but I was young and barely remember it.) I'm taking the Introduction to C/Unix/CGI Programming class at Harvard Extension. As I walked around campus on the first day of class, I very quickly observed how different things felt from the "normal world".
My perspective is probably somewhat unique in that I have been around business for as long as I can remember. My parents have always owned their own business and I myself just went through being a landlord for a few years and then lost all three of my houses to foreclosure. I also had my own consulting business going for awhile. Being home-schooled my whole life also meant that I saw nothing of the public school system.
The atmosphere of being on campus felt very unfamiliar to me -- almost alien. I was only a few hundred feet from streets I had driven on every day for the past few years and yet I felt as if I was on a different planet. It's a hard feeling to describe. As I stood there looking around, I could almost fool myself into believing I was in the middle of a utopian alien society where everything was about peace, harmony, learning, and knowledge. (Then I turned around, looked across the street, and saw all the money-hungry shops trying to buy your soul. I was quickly reminded that I am, in fact, still on Earth. Damn.)
As strange and different as the atmosphere felt, it also felt relaxing -- like there was nothing to do except learn and relax. I was able to walk into a building and have instant access to dozens upon dozens of computers just waiting for me to login and start using them for whatever constructive thing I needed to do. Everything outside was clean and there were plenty of benches and places to sit.
But my perspective is flawed. The company where I work is paying for the class and I'm sure things wouldn't feel quite as "free" and relaxing if I had student loans riding on my back. But that should say something for the current system. Imagine what society would be like if all education was free. Imagine the atmosphere it would create. People learning because they want to learn and because they can learn. Not learning because they want to make money and get an awesome job to pay off their student loans. No, learning because they want to create, explore, and evolve. Learning because it's fun. Learning to learn.
For many students, the burden of expense is relaxed by parent contributions and deferred loan payments. But while they don’t have to worry so much about money, they are often instead preoccupied with grades, getting employment and meeting someone else’s expectations.
It’s a shame really, since college should be about learning, and not just about “getting through it.”
Thanks for the comment, David. As I said in the post, I have very little experience when it comes to college, so hearing what things students normally worry about is interesting to me.
I’ve definitely seen friends who spent their entire college life just waiting for it to be over with, only to discover later when they try to get a job that they actually needed the stuff they were learning.
I really think society is too money-centric. Money itself inhibits the free-thinking, tinkering mindset required for true exploration (internal and otherwise).
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