Colleges are symbolic to our academic diligence. They are the evident narration of our grades, lectures, turmoil and every ounce of the sweat released out. But who says the tags like Harvard, IIMC, IIM, IIT, Stanford, Yale, etc. quantify the degree of our smartness. No matter the grades A and A+ flash on the dossier with an increment in the bookish know-how, but overall, broadly, colleges happen to make us dumb for the following reasons.
The Mundane Routine:
Following a similar routine for three/four/five years makes you a robot. Every new day apparently is like any random previous day It’s like the same old shit on new day. Every act is scheduled and it gets followed up in the similar fashion and rhythm that eventually one tends to forget to put the neo, innovative ways of doing things.
The Assignments:
The assignment is the most dreaded word in the students’ dictionary. It, perhaps, is a good way of remaining occupied and avoid getting homesick but then when they consume all of your hours and leave little to no time for the personal grooming, it becomes a serious issue to be considered. The pattern of doing away with all the assignments either home or class, research or field, somewhat remains the same, which prevents our brain from thinking out of the box.
The Rat Race:
Every student inside the elitist intellectualized walls is being prepared for the rat race existent out in the world. Students are merely taught to survive the cut throat competition and not live the life merrily. Here survival is more important than living. It feels everyone is running and sprinting in the dog eat dog world. The ultimate destination of producing the well-groomed final product overshadows the journey or the making of the fine-tuned person.
Shut Creative Doors:
Until and unless, the courses or the degrees demand, colleges are all about rational explanations, logical reasoning and adult-y justifications. All the questions are designed with a purpose of putting our left half of the brain to use, the entire curriculum makes us analyze the pieces and then come up with critical statements to establish the supremacy. The colours, art, graphics, designing everything takes a back seat leaving our right half of the brain what is wrong with it that its gets such a silent treatment?
Show me the money-money:
Placements, top notch corporate houses, big ranks, ostentatious pay packages, these are the only stuff reining our minds. We become so money focused that we associate the insignificance prime importance to it. Sure, life does teach you the worth of money but colleges make you money driven in a little more. Blame it all on the sky rocketing tuition fees, most of the students have to cut down on their lavish expenditures barring splurging and making us count the currencies in our banks. Gosh, too much of money, money! Yikes and I despise it for that matter.
The classroom set-up:
Oh god, what on mother Earth makes the administration think that the traditional class room set-ups are an impeccable way of teaching? From sitting arrangements to the projectors and to the placement of the whiteboard-blackboard, everyone needs to realize times have changed and there’s an urgent need to flow with the tide of the time and not against it. Of course, they have gone all the soft copy way and almost done away with the notes jotting with the traditional pen and paper but trust me I do not want to deny the suspicious looks given once in a while making the administrators think I am upto chatting. Please, every time, I look at my lappy in n a classroom, it has got nothing to do with the social media notifications. Everytime, I write down something in my electronic media, it does not mean I have not taken down any important notes that people so diligently were delivering. Work smart not only hard.
The marks approach:
The marks approach is such a bull shit concept. Hold on, I am not against the marks, before you throw any unfair assumptions at me, I wanna clear it all, that my whole life has been all about the numbers be it the marks or attendance or anything. My own family has a love for 90+ thing. Anyways, coming back to the point, all I desire to say is that the marks approach kills the very essence of the learning. We do not wanna learn stuff to frame it in a paper , earn some points and forget it later on. Colleges should be all about learning and not marks.
The Lenient Management:
Yeah, I get it, we are quite the adults and we chose to pursue post graduation/ masters at our own will so it’s all free and independent with little or no restrictions, paving way for lenient management. However, one must not forget that institutes altogether cater to the heterogeneous bunch of freshly turned adults, in such a scenario, its imperative for the management or the administration to step ahead and be the guide for the lost crowd. ALAS! We fail to generate such a response from them which eventually lowers the morale of people leaving them demotivated to carry on with their very “ change agenda” and contribute nothing.
Bad Influence:
The previous point brings us here. Since colleges are all about a huge crowd of the heterogeneous youth, all sorts of people land up there. Some good and a few bad and we very well know that one rotten apple is enough to destroy others. Also, differences in the background and upbringing aid in making the varied choices, therefore, what is right for one person, perhaps, is wrong for the another. But then when everyone seems to be advocating the wrong cause in the name of the pleasure sought, the lines between good and bad blur which makes the best of the best minds confused and ultimately lost.
Favoritism Concept:
It isn’t fettered to the institutes only , happens in the work place as well, however, the only difference is the age. When a 20 something student sees his/ her hard work is being overshadowed by some lame student in the wake of favoritism, his dedication, sincerity and whole host of positive adjectives get hit for a six. He/ she screams aloud and when no one seems to heart a thing, he /she is exhausted and silences up, which alters the person completely. Perhaps, leaving him psychologically damaged as well, making him/ her unfit for the real world.
In a nutshell, we can say that the branded institutes are expected to add to your knowledge, make you a better person and prep you the real, harsh world out there but given the contemporary times, it’s precisely doing the opposite, unfortunately.
Top 10 Ways College Makes you Dumb
- The Mundane Routine
- The Assignments
- The Rat Race
- Shut Creative Doors
- Show me the money-money
- The classroom set-up
- The marks approach
- The Lenient Management
- Bad Influence
- Favoritism Concept
List Created By: Palak Gupta