that's the only thing i really learned in college... sometimes i get that not so fresh feeling. really, what does one get out of college? aside from friends, unforgettable experiences and a certificate of achievement? education? bah, humbug. are people actually getting educated in college? i mean, undergrad college? the college experience with parties, late nights and more classes skipped than attended? i often think back on what i got out of my college experience and on that list, education would rank very low indeed.



sure i learned some things, some facts and knowledge were picked up, haphazardly and unwillingly. and maybe that was the problem, i wasn't in college to learn, i was there to get through it. once you put a book with a deadline in front of me, i'm no longer absorbing. i object to the timeline of school. how can you learn when you are forced into writing papers every two weeks? i want to sit under an olive tree and ponder the meaning of each sentence, not skim a book for major themes and passages. what's the point of being able to say "i read that book" or "i took that class" when you can no longer remember anything three weeks later? someone who took school seriously, or at least studiously, tell me if you learned while in school. i know some people got a lot out of school (the successful people perhaps), but i think i speak for most people when i say "i didn't learn shit." does college education do "no more for american youth than supply them the satisfaction of a college degree?" i (and apparently, many employers) say, "yes."

"professor epstein’s own guess is that not more than two percent of those who attend college are lit up, intellectually and culturally, by the experience. 'most people come away from college, happy souls, quite unscarred by what has gone on in the classroom. the education and culture they are presumably exposed to at college never lay a glove on them. this is the big dirty secret of higher education in america.' "

-william f buckley, the new criterion-

i think i've said this before, that parts of me wishes that i had to gone to a liberal arts college. or at least a smaller college where the environment that was more focused on academics. michigan is a great school but it's too easy to get sucked into extracurriculars. people at cafes and libraries were more likely to be talking about the latest frat parties than the latest class assignments. at least that's the michigan i knew. and i was barely an outsider in the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure so it's not like i was socially swamped. i just mucked around college, avoiding the mass of people and ideas that are supposed to come when tossed into an "intellectually diverse" community.



you have to work hard to achieve intellectual immersion, even when surrounded by students, professors, books and resources. rarely does it just happen. so who to blame? my choice of college? the punishing pace of classes? the inherent attraction of slacker-dom? the only thing i have to blame is myself. it's like i took a semester abroad and all i came back with was a working knowledge of local currency, public transportation, foreign mcdonalds, and a soon to be faded tan. and now i wish i had taken the time to learn things and be stimulated, instead of having to seek it out retroactively, making up for time wasted.