The end of an era
It is finally the end of my education years. I never really got along with the secondary and tertiary institutions. I wasn't the best student, talked in class, talked back to the teachers and skipped classes when I could. Well, I didn't have much respect for the system. I thought that the teachers were all high school drop outs who couldn't get into University thus they took the only career that would take them. And these were the people that we were trusting our children's future to?
It angered me that models and actors the very reason why our society was one centered on shallowness and superfical needs were being paid thousands if not millions more than the people who were the heart and soul (after our beloved parents) in developing our childrens minds and future. I couldn't understand why similar to doctors and lawyers there wasn't an entrance bursary (or NCEA) mark to get into the course, and why our teachers weren't getting paid the salary they deserved? Thus I developed the notion that my sole purpose in life was to develop the education system to acknowledge the key role that teachers played in our society as well as to include all forms of learning not just reading and writing. By this stage I had figured out that I was a kinesthetic learner and felt I was being treated unfairly by the education system as their only record to how well I could perform academically was graded based on my ability to bullshit in a grammatically superior way in both my assignments and exams.
So I became an opportunist and sought other ways to learn and prove myself. In high school, I joined everything I possibly could, this continued through to University. To me, grades didn't matter if I could prove that I had developed the skill and knowledge in other environments, the skill and knowledge that would allow me to succeed in the real world. Grades didn't matter because no matter how hard I tried I never did get that A. Even in my best papers. So I challenged my lecturers to grade me in a real life situation, unfortunately this wasn't the case the educational institution is not built to be like that. Go to AUT, or another technology University, it's more hands on. It was never really an option which University I would go, the "premier" University was what my parents said. The one that would be acknowledged all over the world is the only one you're going to. A technological University? - not even an option to be discussed.
Luckily, in my final semester of University one paper turned up where I finally got to be graded in a real life situation, where I would be the co-director of a marketing agency and we would run a tutorial group of 27 students to complete a marketing brief by an external company. This perhaps was the only time I have really enjoyed a University paper, my marks at the end held some discrepancies. An A for the tutorial part, and not so high for my exam result but I was finally happy. For once in my educational history I held a balanced and fair grade where I had been marked in all areas of learning. Funny enough that assignment was disbanded the next semester, it had been the first and last time that type of assignment had been put in place. The lecturer had fought for it but to no avail.
It was only on the last day of University that I finally understood. Someone turned to me and said "This University exists to prepare students to be academics not as a platform to work in the real life" At that very moment things finally clicked. I really wish that they had told me that on the first day. I had gone to University because that piece of paper was so important because whether I liked it or not employers looked to see if you were a University graduate. Maybe not in your later years but especially at the beginning. Yet that "piece of paper" was only an indication as to how well you would perform as an academic it says nothing about how well you could perform in the real world. Surely the HR managers have sat in the University lectures before and seen the lack of learning or preparation a student gains. Models, graphs, formulas and history lessons are irrelevant unless a student knows how to be flexible and adaptable to real world situations. Where are the life skills that are so important for a student to succeed - the ability to communicate, to connect, to negotiate. So it finally made sense. The University was never meant to provide this, that's why the clubs and societies exists. That's why companies now look for a well rounded student, they've finally started to see the bigger picture.
By the way if you don't already know, the harsh reality is that students only exist as a means for academics to pay their research. That's why half of them are so bad at lecturing, they didn't even get taught how to. At least the High school teachers went to Teachers College, they were just young and inexperienced. The University lecturers only do it because they have to.
All in all, I'm glad it's all over. That piece of paper now is irrelevant as the corporate workforce isn't for me either. I prefer to be my own boss and to judge people based of their personality, skills and capabilities rather than whether or not they are any good at writing what they think I want to hear.
(MK II)
