Sunday, April 6, 2008

Re: Vision of Students Today

This video brings to attention a lot of truths for most post-secondary students today. Education needs to be dragged out of the 19th century and it is making it even more difficult for low-income, at-risk kids to compete. The needed technology and connection is not reaching them.

I hadn’t thought much about myself in this situation until I saw this video and quickly realized how lucky I am. During my entire academic life I have never faced any issues dealing with class sizes and teachers that will or won’t remember my name. Oddly enough however, when I had to sit through lectures with over 200+ people in the same room during my first year in Guelph, I felt more relieved than anything. It gave me a sense of freedom to know that I wasn’t being watched over and in the same respect I found some clarity and space to learn on my own. That being said, I still believe it is important for some kind of close mentorship to take place and this is what our teachers and professors should ideally be doing. Since I am in the landscape architecture program here at the university, I admit I do feel privileged to be taught both theory and practice and have it completely relevant towards a professional career. Money isn’t much of an issue either. The only thing I regret is my apathetic work ethic and habit of procrastination I’ve developed, as a child raised in the 90s with technological distractions. McLuhan was definitely on to something. The generation of students who learned well with a teacher scratching on a chalkboard while sitting in a four-walled classroom has long expired.

1 comment:

I. Reilly said...

one way of vindicating your position as an undergraduate would be to continue your work on this blog, so as to expand the range of information/knowledge make available to other publics outside the structures of the university.

any thoughts?
i.