It seems to be the only path to a career
which will provide financial security and stability. Or is it? Some would argue
that college may be a waste of money.
So
what do I think? I believe Russell Hvolbek said it best, “Moreover, the goals
of business humans are to make money and do it as efficiently and quickly as
possible. They desire exact facts and data to help them make money. Business
humans live for this goal.” It has certainly been my goal and I have yet to
succeed. My parents encouraged me to go to college after high school but I had
other plans. I started working full time right out of high school. I thought it
would be a waste of my time and their money to go to college since I was
working and making money already. I thought I had it all figured out. I would
start at the bottom and with some hard work, in time I would make my way to the
top. After all these years my work ethics haven’t changed and I do still
believe in that approach, however, it didn’t work for me. When things didn’t
exactly go as I had planned I was devastated. I found myself, about fifteen
years later, only making a small amount more money than I was when I first
began working. And to stress even more the importance for me to have a more
solid income, I now have three children to support. I think college will
provide me with the knowledge and skills I need to be better qualified for a
position that will help me to better provide for my family.
But what if I’m wrong? What if I spend the
next four years working hard toward a degree that leads me to nowhere? I have
to admit that is a real fear of mine and with keeping in mind the increasing number
of college graduates who are out of work right now, I believe it to be a legitimate
fear. Then I read an article by Dr. Nate Kornell Ph.D. in Psychology Today and
it opened my eyes to the possibility that a bigger pay check may not be the
only reason I chose to come to college. I would like to have a more clear
understanding of the world I am living in. Before college I mainly spent my
recent days tending to my children’s needs and sitting on the couch watching
television. The only connection I had to the outside world was watching the
news. I want to grow as a person. I need
my life to have more meaning. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy being a mother,
but I want there to be more to my story than just that. I believe that the more
I understand the world I am living in, the better chance I will have of finding
my place in it.
It seems that there are several others who
believe there are more advantages to attending college than just increasing
your financial worth. Mike Rose, a professor of education at UCLA says it makes complete since for people to be
concerned with the economic benefits of going to college, but that there are
many other reasons to get a college education. He says and I quote,” not just
learning things to make a living, but also learning things to enable you to do
things with your life, to enable you to find interests and pursuits that may in
some way or another expand the way we see things.” I also read an article at COLLEGE
the blog that tells that college will help us to develop courage and determination.
Well I can tell you that has proven to be true already for me. In just a few
short weeks here I have already experienced great anxiety and I have had to
face and overcome some fears. I have also obtained knowledge and learned some
new skills that have already proved to be useful in my day to day life. So as
for the question at hand, “what is college good for, “ I believe college is good
for me. My experience here has thus far
been a good one and has already impacted my life in a positive way. So as I
hope that there is a great career in my future, and that college will help me
to get to it and to be successful at it, I believe college is helping me to
achieve other goals as well. But, of course, that it just my theory, what do
you think college it good for?
What Is College Good For? By Telisha Taylor
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