Why Studying Well Matters

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Clarissa

June 23, 2012

A waiter who served us at a restaurant tonight told me he used to study history at my university. And now he’s a waiter.

We have very high dropout rates, unfortunately. And I have no idea what can be done to impress upon our students how absolutely crucial it is for them to take their studies seriously. There are so many among them who plagiarize, cheat, copy-paste and so few who do extra readings and abstain from asking “will this be on the test?”

Our university serves mostly students from very humble backgrounds. Coming to us is a real opportunity for them, yet many don’t seem to understand it.

P.S. I cut my night short, left my coffee unfinished and rushed home because a student emailed me the final exam 27 hours after the due date and is inundating me with hysterical messages about all the reasons why that is my fault. So now I have to grade the exam and change the student’s final grade online.

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14 responses to “Why Studying Well Matters”

David Bellamy

June 23, 2012

I think I would refuse to grade the late exam. If the student gets a dean to order you to do so, then you must, I suppose, but otherwise it is inappropriate, unless it really is your fault. (I am trying to imagine how it could possibly be your fault. So far, I have only been able to come up with the possibility that the student’s email was incorrect on the roster; he or she wrote you with the correct email address, and you lost the corrected email address.)

If anything else happened, I would love to hear how it is your fault.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  June 23, 2012
  
  Apparently, he submitted the exam three days ago and never wondered why I kept sending him reminders. Five reminders were sent to this person. Five.
  
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JaneB

June 23, 2012

Abandoning such a lovely cup of coffee really does seem a bit TOO kind!

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  June 23, 2012
  
  And just when we finally found a restaurant in the area that serves cappucinos!
  
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Matt

June 23, 2012

How much do you think studying well matters? I mean this seriously. I COMPLETELY agree that finishing college and taking your CAREER seriously is important, but I think most educators miss something critical: Studying well and truly “learning” (from the stance of genuinely knowing information, as opposed to just getting good grades) are at best MARGINALLY correlated with having a good career and job.

I say this, because you aren’t commenting on this waiter because he necessarily didn’t learn in history (my understanding is you know nothing of how well he studied or learned) but that his economic prospects seem to suck. If he had been smart on how to merely get by with good/decent grades, and truly networked and understood the job market / career prospects for his field of interest I would assert he would be WAY more likely to be making a middle class job (40-80k) vs. the menial server job.

I have many more thoughts on this topic.. but I’m curious if you think the distinction i am making is important or makes sense to you.

As always, thanks for your opinions 🙂 I do wish I would have had the opportunity to have taken a class from you.. I think I would have loved it, but I’m not sure if you would have gotten sick as hell with me … 😛

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  June 23, 2012
  
  I respect people who have a vision, a plan for their life and work with dedication to bring this vision to reality. And I don’t respect people who, as we say in my country, spend their lives floating like excrement in an ice-hole. It doesn’t matter what the vision is, as long as one works to achieve it. And you’ve got to be a real idiot to go into debt to pay for college education and then not squeeze every ounce you can out of it. It isn’t any different from buying a lot of expensive food and then let it rot while you sit there, gobbling garbage.
  
  I feel sorry for the waiter not because he is a waiter but because he had this wistful look when he said with a deep sigh, “I used to be a student there. . .” If he had said, “Gosh, I’m SO happy I dropped out and found this job of my dreams here”, I would be very happy for him. There is nothing wrong with being a waiter. But there is a lot wrong with being 30 and feeling completely disappointed with your life.
  
  I don’t think that money is a worthy life goal and I don’t think that a good job means a job that lets you make a lot of money. Studying improves one’s quality of life irrespective of whether it leads to a well-paying job because it allows one to grow as a human being and develop needs, sensibilities and ways of enjoying reality that one would have never suspected existed.
  
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  1. Matt
    
    June 23, 2012
    
    we certainly can tell you are an educator 🙂 And I mean that with all respect and I LOVE your passion for learning/studying/knowledge!
    
    I fear I may come across as a money-grubbing ***** in some circumstances, but that is not the case. I TRULY value learning, and that is one reason I have broadened the blogs I read, the reason I am a veracious reader on many business, political, social, and scientific subjects etc.
    
    HOWEVER, with the large costs of college, I think college is (or at least should be) primarily about financially creating a career/job/life path that is sustainable. Obviously i have a voracious passion for finance so I may be biased, but realistically making “enough” (a vague term, but generally in the at least 40 – 50k range so that you can live a modest lifestyle) is HUGELY important to living a sustainable life where then you can follow other passions (whether artistic, academic, athletic, volunteering etc.).
    
    In specific Clarissa do you think college should primarily be about your financial future? I think learning can be best done outside of it (if college were cheap then things might be different.. but college is expensive!!!)
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      June 23, 2012
      
      “HOWEVER, with the large costs of college, I think college is (or at least should be) primarily about financially creating a career/job/life path that is sustainable.”
      
      – I can only repeat that studying at my state university is extremely affordable.
      
      “In specific Clarissa do you think college should primarily be about your financial future? ”
      
      – Henry Ford, a guy who kind of knew a couple of things about making a buck here and there 🙂 said, (I quote from memory) “If at the beginning of a project you are calculating how much money it will bring you, the project will not succeed and you will not make any money.” I’ve seen quite a few people who keep saying how they only have come to college because they want to MAKE MONEY. And they have a scary gleam in their eyes when they say “MAKE MONEY.” I have one person like that in my own family.
      
      Strangely, these people all end up in dead-end low-paying miserable jobs where they are exploited and mistreated. A job is like a person. If you are only with it for the money, don’t expect it to give you real love in return.
      
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  2. Matt
    
    June 23, 2012
    
    Fair points. I understand your emphasis on learning. I guess the one point is that personal financial knowledge and a financial focus needs to be a major part of most people’s life, particularly with major decisions like college.
    
    But studying well is def. a good thing either way 🙂
    
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  3. Pen
    
    June 24, 2012
    
    “Obviously i have a voracious passion for finance so I may be biased, but realistically making “enough” (a vague term, but generally in the at least 40 – 50k range so that you can live a modest lifestyle) is HUGELY important to living a sustainable life where then you can follow other passions (whether artistic, academic, athletic, volunteering etc.).”
    
    The admissions person giving a tour at Eastman School of Music told me, “Before you decide, ask yourself if you’re so passionate about it that you can see yourself doing this for nothing. If you can’t, then it’s not the right major.”
    
    A passion for a music major is a choice of life. In college, music majors may practice anywhere from three to six hours a day, attend classes on theory, musicianship, composition, performance ensembles and lessons. The same goes for art majors: they do art all day every day. What does anyone achieve in claiming that these things must be put to prepare for a “real” job that pales in comparison to their own goals? If someone isn’t passionate about their job, they’re not going to do well anyway.
    
    It’s all well and good to push people into sciences because the media tells us that’s where all the good jobs are. But then again, that’s at least partially why the undergraduate program dropout rates are so high, why weed-out classes often occur in the first year and a half of a program. The people who are really passionate about the subject are the ones who end up continuing in the field. These are the people who wouldn’t just up and quit if suddenly another subject became a popular choice financially. For example, there are some very passionate doctors who once worked in hospitals and got fed up with hospital politics, so they joined Doctors Without Borders. These are not people who’s only goal is a comfortable lifestyle.
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      June 24, 2012
      
      What a brilliant comment! I agree completely.
      
      I have an example to illustrate. My husband is probably the least materialistic person in the world. His material needs are very limited. He cares nothing about material possessions but he adores his quantitative methods. When he was unemployed, he used every opportunity to do projects with these methods completely for free. And as a result of doing those projects, he now has a very well-paying job. But the best thing about it is that he had a fantastic and a very productive time while he was unemployed. Because it isn’t about money for him.
      
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musteryou

June 23, 2012

That’s true. Studying is not the key to everything. I did my PhD to assuage a deep thirst for knowledge. Regrettably, I don’t like middle class mores. I can’t feel comfortable for them, so barring an opening in Zimbabwe, I don’t think I can take my PhD any further.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  June 23, 2012
  
  ” Regrettably, I don’t like middle class mores.”
  
  – What are they? I’m not very familiar with this class system, which is why I ask. It always amuses me when people ask me if I’m middle-class. I’m from a society where the class structure is very different but try explaining to people that their reality is not the only one.
  
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  1. musteryou
    
    June 23, 2012
    
    I don’t know what they are, I just know that my motivational system is different from those who accept them. This also has to do with attitude and desire. Basically, and perhaps this is regrettable to say, or perhaps not, depending on how you look at it, I like the values I was brought up with. So, everywhere I go, I search for situations that can echo or replicate these. Japanese society does, to the degree that it still has a sense of formality and hierarchy. Martial arts — the same, in many respects. Also, I have to have wildness and stoicism. Stoicism is my social aesthetic. I don’t like people who infringe against it, because I find them aesthetically unappealing and hard to fathom.
    
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