Bored, lethargic, forgetful, and unsure of one’s direction in life: these aren’t the things most people imagine when they sign up for college. Hollywood portrayals of sex, drugs, booze, and epic misadventures in college are totally misleading: the majority of student life comprises reading, writing, and studying, or the procrastination of all three. Most people are out of shape, running late, and in a constant state of general anxiety because the workload is unreasonably heavy.
The effects of stress on the body are highly documented. People under a lot of stress often suffer from an elevated heart rate, insomnia, chronic headaches, indigestion, and neck and back pain. The hormones secreted during stress cause unnecessary long-term wear and tear on the body.
The mental side effects of stress can be even more detrimental to students: forgetfulness, low productivity, lack of creativity, lethargy, and confusion can be reactions to stress.
As the semester progresses, it nosedives into a pathetic race just to hand in anything that passes for satisfactory work by the due date. The goal is to get things done, not to actually explore ideas or be passionate about learning.
This kind of schooling teaches students how to produce mediocre work quickly. Taking on this amount of work in the “real world” would never make sense: most people under this much pressure end up submitting unsatisfactory end products.
Some students have now given up on the notion of quality of life. We’re often irritable, and we don’t often have time to talk about the day-to-day things that happen outside our bubble; student life leaves little room for celebration, hobbies, cooking, or non-student relationships.
To be fair, there’s been a resurgence of the slow-food movement, and there’s definitely a place for yoga and meditation in our culture, but they’re still niche. These activities emphasize the importance of technique and the journey along the way, not just the end goal.
Colleges and universities end up teaching the opposite. There’s a mentality that if a person’s not willing to “give it all up” for something then they don’t want it badly enough.
Students are required to live in a way that will never be expected of them in the future, just as proof that they are worthy of an education.
Ultimately, this method detracts from many students’ learning experience, and doesn’t serve any practical purpose in the long run.
I agree completely. So what do you do to change the current standards? How do we create healthy students with achievable learning goals that will not cause mental and physical collapse. The college and university environments of today are, unfortunately, not driven by the students goals. They are driven by money, money, and more money! And unless presented with a system that will ensure continued profits and growth, the health and aspirations of the student fall by the wayside. 🙁