I realise that by merely raising a quizzical eyebrow about the self-evident priority of these goals I am going to be damned for being out of touch with "the real world".
Some see education as a means to an end; others see it as an end in itself.
I've gotten past it. I don't know how old I was when I realized that the vast majority of students see education as a meal ticket. "What are you going to do with your degree?" "Oh, I don't know. Hang it on the wall, maybe. More likely, it'll collect dust on a shelf." "No, I mean, how will you market yourself?" That sort of thing. To this day I still see education as a goal in itself, but I've been keenly aware that many folks do not.
We roll with it. We even exploit the fact, using it as a recruiting edge. (That's probably why Lulu notices that it is being "pushed" in his university.)
Great great post Angus.
Right now I find myself in this same cycle of apathy that has been described. I have graduated with a major for an industry I sure as hell don't want to be working in for the next forty years of my life (Accounting) solely because I even up to today I don't know what the hell I want to do. In high school I flirted with the idea of becoming a History major, and I even brought it up several times when I was undeclared to my parents. They always immediately shot it down everytime and encouraged me to get a "degree that makes a living".
Eventually, as time went by I became apathetic and cynical enough about college and adulthood I decided "f*** this" and declared a degree in Accounting. I never got to liking it one bit as a lot of my fellows went gaga about being some corporate buttboy in the future. I'm amazed that I managed to graduate with an over 3.0 GPA, considering how much I hated my educational life at that point.
The most motivating classes I've ever taken were the philosophy and social science classes. However, every time I thought about changing my major there would be this voice that would say "wait! Don't do that Lad! Don't you want a comfortable living after you graduate! Don't you want a field where you can get a job anywhere instead of working at Starf***ingBucks for the next three years before you get a crappy underpaid job as a public school teacher in some podunk town!"
My only comfort is that by getting my Accounting degree I am attractive to museums who are looking for people who can deal with finances to help me eventually pursue a Masters in some sort of History field. And that some day I'll just try to write a random ass book I can sell on Amazon for $1.25 on Kindle (let the Five Minutes Hate from traditional "made from killed trees" book lovers out there) and make millions of dollars on.
It is unfair the demonization of liberal arts majors. Like they are subhuman because they come to college to pursue a degree for more purpose than just to say "I LIVED WITHIN A COMFORTABLE $40,000 A YEAR BUDGET!" Like they are uncool for thinking that philosophical pursuits are a great way to look at and better understand humanity, civilization, legal code, science, and everything else that exists.
Or maybe they look down on such fields because to actually analyze themselves analytically would require some painful truths. It is painful, but it is worth it.
Which isn't to say that there aren't people who truly want to be Science, Math, or Business majors. However, there are a lot of them, like me, who find themselves living in utter apathy and cynicism after they graduate. The comments in this thread kind of hit the nail on the head in my opinion about why that is.
I'm kind of in the same boat as you, even though I'm probably a little older than you and have gone through some of the stages you have gone through. When I graduated from high-school I didn't know what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to go to college. What were my interests back then? Well I liked music, reading, photography. I thought I could get an arts degree but my parents would never let me. When I was in college studying something that bored me to death, I decided to study acting, but I simply couldn't afford it. Once I graduated, I still had no idea what I wanted to do (I still have the same interests I had when I was 19 but I have no idea how to make a living out of them). I decided to go to grad school thinking that once I got my degree I would have more opportunities and do things that I might really enjoy.
So I got my MA and then I began teaching. I loved teaching and I felt that I was able to contribute to society in some way. And I believe I did: I always had students that would ask me the same questions I had 10-15 years ago when I was their age, and I want to believe that the guidance I gave them made it possible for them to make better decisions than I did. Many of them for example had the same pressure a lot of us have from our family, and I tried to give them a different perspective by telling them that their happiness is more important than anything. These were things I wish someone had told me when I was in college.
I now have a different job (an office job) and I still try to help the people around me. At the same time I pursue my other interests: I write for a music website, I draw, I take pictures, and I try to be more involved in environmental, human rights or other issues that concern me. I recently entertained the idea of quitting my job, where I don't make a whole lot of money, just enough to have a comfortable living, and devote more of my time to things I really want to do. I gave it a lot of thought and I decided to keep doing what I'm doing for now and just try to make the most of it. We all go through phases, and sometimes we may feel that we're wasting our time (which is really precious) but the truth is that every experience we have teaches us something about ourselves that will make us make better decisions in the future.
