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Local News

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Weekend column: Some students may fail because of laziness
By BAILEY SHOEMAKER RICHARDS

College is supposed to be a learning experience -- which is one reason I think it's sad and disturbing that so people I run into and overhear seem to have absolutely no interest in learning, whether it's what's taught in their classes or any of the many life lessons college offers. I will be among the first to admit that lecture classes can be incredibly tedious at times, but there's a big difference between being bored in class and being bored with learning. There are a couple of causes of this, I think: One is that we as students are lazy. The other is that academia is failing to engage students.

In an ethics class I took, we had to do one of those horribly awkward introductions where everyone tells the entire class a few facts about the person next to them. I had to introduce one of the Everyman students one sees on every college campus, but this particular individual expressed a rather upsetting sentiment that I hear more and more frequently: he told me he came to school and majored in business because his parents had told him to. When I asked him what his interests were, he just shrugged and looked at his notebook, ending the conversation.

I'm not advocating disobeying one's parents, but deciding on a major is not something one should do simply on instruction. To come to college on a predetermined path with no personal interests in place -- what a fate! It's too horrifying for anyone who genuinely loves her major or career to contemplate but, unfortunately, this apathetic approach to school and life appears to be more common than I had thought.

Academic carelessness is a problem. Students sit in class and text or don't show up at all because they simply have no interest, and I think it's important to look at both the students and the schools and ask why that is the case. Sometimes it's simply a bad teacher, a bad quarter, or semester or the wrong major. All these temporary and changeable things. However, the problem runs deeper than that. Students are not made to care about academics anymore.

My generation was raised, for the most part, with a silver spoon in its collective mouth: We've become complacent. Passion is increasingly rare among my classmates, and therefore almost frightening in its intensity when I come across it, both in myself and in others. Intellectual laziness is widespread, and the problem is caused both by students and our teachers.

I look around at the glazed eyes of the people sitting around me, and I want to know what the solution is. Academia is an important part of many students' lives. It should be something that is treasured; knowledge should be something desirable, not something we grumble over having to acquire. After a lifetime of having nearly everything given to us without much trouble, the workload of college is sometimes an overwhelming challenge -- especially for freshmen. We have not been taught to love learning.

At the same time, college is still relying very heavily on an industrialized form of education: We are lectured to and sent in and out of classes like factory parts. In the age of Twitter and Facebook, we students are more accustomed to conversing on a global scale on a multitude of topics; our education needs to reflect the changing mores of the generation. The amount of readily available information online has changed the way students learn, which is not to say that books are no longer valuable, but that the way we use them needs to change.

Most students are no longer content to sit in a room and be lectured to for hours; we feel -- perhaps at times mistakenly -- that we can contribute to an academic lecture, and the current classroom model is totally ineffective in allowing for this. Something needs to change; students need to be given a reason to care about the work we do; at the same time, that work needs to reflect and enhance the increasingly technological culture in which we live.

College is a learning experience. Sometimes, students need to learn to listen instead of talk, but students who don't even show up for classes they get nothing out of won't learn anything at all.

Fortunately, there are things that can be done. Smaller classes, for one. Extensive entrance counseling for freshmen students. Greater focus on the necessity of knowledge throughout education, including in younger grades. Basically, a total overhaul of the educational system.

The reason our educational system no longer works so well is because it was designed around the Industrial Revolution, and our society no longer functions the way it did then. Interactivity and two-way communication are a lot more important now, and most people don't get factory jobs. If we changed the way education was run, particularly to include more creative activities, people would be much more interested in academics and probably finding or creating jobs as opposed to just doing what everyone else does because the educational system has squashed their curiosity.

Shoemaker Richards is a junior at Ohio University and 2008 graduate of Findlay High School.


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News Briefs Firefighters discover 20 marijuana plants in house
After fighting a house fire early Monday at 815 Howard St., firefighters found 20 marijuana plants in the residence.

"They ran across it and called us," said police Sgt. Justin Hendren with the Hancock County METRICH Drug Enforcement Unit.

Police seized all 20 plants, and Hendren said charges are pending.

High-powered growing lights, fans, and a box filled with dried marijuana were also found in the house, according to a police report.

Investigators said an electrical short started the fire before 3 a.m. Monday.

The blaze caused an estimated $12,000 in damage to the residence, owned by Amanda Crawford. No one was injured, according to the Findlay Fire Department.

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The curbside recycling program will be held Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 7-9.

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Fletcher began his patrol career in 2002 after graduating from the 139th Academy class and has been assigned to the Findlay post since.

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There will be no classes and the college offices will be closed.

Classes will resume and offices will open again on Tuesday.

Holiday changes ad deadlines
The Courier won't be published on Monday, in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

Because of the holiday, some advertising deadlines have been moved up this week:

Black and white display advertising for Tuesday's newspaper must be placed by noon Friday. Display advertising for Wednesday's newspaper must be placed by 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Color display advertising for the Thursday, Sept. 9 newspaper must be placed by Friday.

Classified advertising and City and Country advertising for Saturday's newspaper must be placed by 2 p.m. Friday. Classified ads for Tuesday's newspaper must be placed by 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Courier business and advertising offices will close at 3 p.m. Friday for the holiday.