Column: Education's transitions lead to apathy
Published Oct. 15, 2010
I should have failed out of school two semesters ago.
But I didn’t. Instead, I managed to advance forward. What saved me? That burst of adrenaline that comes around when you realize you’re heading for a collision with failure, Mizzou Market’s business hours (24/7 all day, err'day), caffeine and most of all, the skills I acquired maneuvering through the American public education system for 13 years.
Despite being the poster girl for scholastic apathy, I go into every new phase of education with high hopes and motivation. I firmly believe all this bullshit work has got to be moving me forward this time.
My propensity to work hard never lasts long because sooner or later, I realize I just don’t care about the task at hand and revert back to my old motto: You don’t have to know something well to perform to passing standards.
Whatever information I crammed into my brain freshman year is nearly gone. I can just barely recall the three types of rocks. My long-term retention of knowledge and my desire to keep trying has come to a screeching halt. I came to Missouri to learn to be a good journalist. A year and a half later, I kind of understand the ethical code better. Overall, $30,000 has been pissed upon.
Maybe you’re not all suffering from a bad case of the “I don’t give a damn” syndrome, but I’m sure on some level you understand my sentiment.
To draw an analogy with the story of Sisyphus: A man is condemned by the gods to roll a rock up and down a mountain for all of eternity. Once the man gets close to the top of the mountain, he has to start all over again.
This is the way the system works, too. Elementary school builds you up for middle school. In middle school, you start all over with a new set of teachers and a new set of standards. By the time you feel accustomed to the new pace and are a ready to take a deep breath, boom: high school. Everything from that point on is supposed to lead you to the ultimate tier in education, the big finale and the point of freedom: college.
But now what? You've really just received a whole new set of rules to live by, and this time you have to learn to budget. You might hate it, but statistics say you have to stay, because you’re going to be able to build a better life for yourself with a degree. All the money, all the job options — you’d have to be a moron to drop out.
College isn’t the end of the struggle up and down the mountain, and many of life’s big lessons can’t be learned from the pages of a $200 dollar textbook or at a fee of $245.60 per credit hour. We’re spending a huge portion of our lives condemned to a system that doesn’t care where we end up, as long as we remember to pay our bills.
If you’re somebody who’s been sliding by in this life, you know as well as I do that education’s constant transitions are allowing you to do so. You don’t have to look back once you’ve already moved forward. The other day I met a student who admitted she never learned long division. Look where she is now — in college.
I don’t claim to be a professional in the field of education, but I do know firsthand its capacity to be nothing more than a holding cell for apathetic youth. America needs to pay attention to the cracks in our educational foundation. Instead of herding us around for 13 years, it's got to stop and recognize we are human, and we need help. Our next generation should not be a pack of cattle standing in line to be ready for production.