Thursday, June 16, 2011

More than a Job

This week during class my prof shared something that has stuck out in my mind for the last couple days and I can't seem to shake it.  Let me build up to get there.

When children are young they have a desire to become something.  We live in a society that encourages children to go to college.  When I was young I heard it loud and clear in my home that college was a great option for my life.  I think that both of my parents encouraged me to attend college so I could receive an education.  When I graduated from high school I went to college but I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life (that would be a legal source of income).

I start that story out with society and then make it more personal.  See while I was in class this week my prof said something that I will hold as truth:
People no longer go to college to receive an education but to get a job
You said what!
You are kidding me!
You want to think that students are no longer going to college to get an education but to get a job?

Think about that for a minute.  Now think about it for another minute if it still doesn't register with you.  I have thought about it for four days and I think its true.

I talk to students about going to college and I always ask them what they want to do after college.  I want to change my question to something like this:
What do you hope to learn in college?   
How will that change the way you think?
How cool would it be if we started encouraging students to learn?  Now I can't do this on my own.  I need help from adult leaders in our ministry.  I need to be able to communicate with parents on how we can encourage education over vocation.

A road block to this is going to be google. I can't believe I just said that because I love google but the truth is because of google I do not have to retain knowledge in my mind because I know where knowledge can be found.  I would love to see the community I live in encourage students to do more than just hope to get a job in life but to get an education that teaches them to think.

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