I have recently taken a couple of courses at a local community college. I am shifting the focus of my career and wanted to enhance the learning process for myself. Now that I am here, I am finding myself reevaluating the "education age".
We go to school around the age of 5-7 years old and we continue to be in school until we are 17-18 years old. Going to Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle School and High School is part of most cultures, either enforced or not. In America, it is required for children to go to school in those ages; in fact, public education is free. On the other hand, going to college, graduate or other professional school is definitely not mandatory and many may choose not to even attend depending on their field.
In my case, I went straight to college right after high school. In fact, I graduated high school a year early. Now, this wasn't because I was particularly smart that they let me "skip a year" but because I was young and foolish and chose to graduate early because I was merely imitating a friend and didn't want to go through senior year alone! Go figure. I went to City College of New York for my complete 4 years of undergraduate school. I pretty much started to "enjoy" school and the learning process much more when I got into college, because honestly, I had no distractions! I was all alone; I didn't know anybody so I started to really pay attention in class. This turned out to be a bit chaotic at times because I was determined to learn everything. I didn't know what I wanted the focus of my field to be because it was just so damn hard to choose! For a time, I took Philosophy and decided I wanted to be a Philosophy major. Same thing happened when I took acting, directing, history, literature, psychology, sociology, education, and... In the end, I was in the end of my third year and realized I don't want to be in school forever (as I noticed many of my peers were around for as long as 6 or 7 years and still nowhere close to graduation). Thus, I decided I need to choose and fast. I evaluated the courses I had taken and realized the one field I had continuously taken courses for since the first semester was French. So I made that my major and graduated after 4 years with a B.A. in French Language and Literature.
In my last semester, I took a Classics course to fulfill a requirement for my major, and I realized I love the Classics and I am pretty good at it too! Resolved, I looked into Masters in Classics programs and seriously considered even applying to a PhD program. I was able to get into a Baccalaureate degree, which was a "bridge" program between Bachelor's and Master's at Columbia University in Classics. I was ecstatic, but later realized I simply cannot afford the tuition so I let that dream go. I thought long and hard about what I want to study in my graduate school because I didn't want to go to school yet again and sure, learn many interesting things, but not really learn any specialized knowledge in order to apply it to acquire a good-paying job. After evaluating my skills set, my interests, and my current job at the time (in the Writing Center), I decided, hey, I love writing and I love teaching it. Why not go into a career where I can teach Writing? Sure enough, I was able to find the perfect program, which was actually housed in my old college, City College of New York! Here I was looking into schools across the country when my second home already had that major, with a much more affordable tuition rate. So I applied to the program and was able to start my graduate study in Spring of 2010.
I must first explain that the main reason I didn't hesitate when I graduated college and thought about graduate school right away was because both my parents went to graduate school and so did my older sister. It just seemed like the logical thing to do! I graduated Winter of 2012 with an MA in English, Language and Literacy and before my degree was up, I was able to score jobs in the teaching of Reading and Writing where I was able to make $30-$65 per hour. I enjoyed what I did and thought I was done! One thing I noticed in my graduate school was that most of my classmates were much older than me. Here were people who already had a life before entering the classroom. Some already had Master's and were there to collect their second degree, while others were switching their careers and were coming back to school after years of working in other fields. Honestly, other than me, there was only one other student who was my age and had come to graduate school straight after college! And even that one person already had a daughter who was 10 years old! So, she had gotten pregnant when she was in high school, at the age of 16 and had still managed to go through college and end up there in graduate school, getting her Master's. Oh and she was already a full-time Kindergarten teacher! I decided, if I do decide to continue on to PhD (which I was seriously considering since I loved college so much), I will wait. I will really try to "have a life" and be able to be in the classroom and really be able to "add value".
Now, 4 years later, here I am, back in school. I am not completing my PhD or any other degree for that matter. I am not even sure if I will go on to complete any sort of program but one thing I notice about myself and about the people around me is, the education age should go up! I understand the first 17 years or so of education that you must go through from infancy all the way until teenage years. However, after you "become of age" or of legal age at least, you need a break! I feel like if not all, most people are not prepared psychologically and socially to go onto study a trade or subject that they will later get a job for. This is the reason I particularly like the American Education System with opportunities such as these community colleges. If a student so chooses, he or she can attend community college and not be a "full-time student" and only take courses at his or her own leisure. Perhaps he or she wants to work part-time while attending school. Perhaps he or she wants to travel! Oh and traveling is the best! Working and traveling are probably the most useful things one can do before really settling in to first of all choosing a field to study and then pursuing one in college.
In my opinion, the best system would be one where after students graduate from college at the age of 17 or 18 (whenever they started school as that differs depending on the culture or background), he or she has to work (and this doesn't even have to be a paid position.) It could be a sort of vocational school very similar to community colleges where students will be trained and also work. Perhaps after a brief 3-6 month "trial period" the student can start to get compensated. Once the student completes these "2 years", he or she will be eligible to apply to an undergraduate program. In addition, during these 2 years, he or she can have opportunities to travel and "work" or "study" abroad for a semester or two. During these 2 years, he or she also has opportunities to take electives so that the person can really get a a sense of what each field entails. In this way, when the student begins undergraduate school, he or she is already 19-21 years old, so maybe he or she is already a legal alcoholic drinker as well, because let's face it! That's another really big problem. Most drunk drivers who get into really bad accidents and end up killing themselves and others are under-age drinkers who drank too much at so and so frat parties in college!
In the end, whether this educational system of mine ends up happening in the next decades or not, the educational age should definitely go up! People can attend undergraduate college right after high school if they so prefer but people, at least wait a couple of years before you go right into graduate school!! In this way, not only will you have a much better idea about what you want to study, but you will also know how to study! You will take the education much more seriously. You will value it more. You will know how to plan your time in a more productive manner. But then again, it can really depend on the person as many people don't actually learn these skills like...ever!
We go to school around the age of 5-7 years old and we continue to be in school until we are 17-18 years old. Going to Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle School and High School is part of most cultures, either enforced or not. In America, it is required for children to go to school in those ages; in fact, public education is free. On the other hand, going to college, graduate or other professional school is definitely not mandatory and many may choose not to even attend depending on their field.
In my case, I went straight to college right after high school. In fact, I graduated high school a year early. Now, this wasn't because I was particularly smart that they let me "skip a year" but because I was young and foolish and chose to graduate early because I was merely imitating a friend and didn't want to go through senior year alone! Go figure. I went to City College of New York for my complete 4 years of undergraduate school. I pretty much started to "enjoy" school and the learning process much more when I got into college, because honestly, I had no distractions! I was all alone; I didn't know anybody so I started to really pay attention in class. This turned out to be a bit chaotic at times because I was determined to learn everything. I didn't know what I wanted the focus of my field to be because it was just so damn hard to choose! For a time, I took Philosophy and decided I wanted to be a Philosophy major. Same thing happened when I took acting, directing, history, literature, psychology, sociology, education, and... In the end, I was in the end of my third year and realized I don't want to be in school forever (as I noticed many of my peers were around for as long as 6 or 7 years and still nowhere close to graduation). Thus, I decided I need to choose and fast. I evaluated the courses I had taken and realized the one field I had continuously taken courses for since the first semester was French. So I made that my major and graduated after 4 years with a B.A. in French Language and Literature.
In my last semester, I took a Classics course to fulfill a requirement for my major, and I realized I love the Classics and I am pretty good at it too! Resolved, I looked into Masters in Classics programs and seriously considered even applying to a PhD program. I was able to get into a Baccalaureate degree, which was a "bridge" program between Bachelor's and Master's at Columbia University in Classics. I was ecstatic, but later realized I simply cannot afford the tuition so I let that dream go. I thought long and hard about what I want to study in my graduate school because I didn't want to go to school yet again and sure, learn many interesting things, but not really learn any specialized knowledge in order to apply it to acquire a good-paying job. After evaluating my skills set, my interests, and my current job at the time (in the Writing Center), I decided, hey, I love writing and I love teaching it. Why not go into a career where I can teach Writing? Sure enough, I was able to find the perfect program, which was actually housed in my old college, City College of New York! Here I was looking into schools across the country when my second home already had that major, with a much more affordable tuition rate. So I applied to the program and was able to start my graduate study in Spring of 2010.
I must first explain that the main reason I didn't hesitate when I graduated college and thought about graduate school right away was because both my parents went to graduate school and so did my older sister. It just seemed like the logical thing to do! I graduated Winter of 2012 with an MA in English, Language and Literacy and before my degree was up, I was able to score jobs in the teaching of Reading and Writing where I was able to make $30-$65 per hour. I enjoyed what I did and thought I was done! One thing I noticed in my graduate school was that most of my classmates were much older than me. Here were people who already had a life before entering the classroom. Some already had Master's and were there to collect their second degree, while others were switching their careers and were coming back to school after years of working in other fields. Honestly, other than me, there was only one other student who was my age and had come to graduate school straight after college! And even that one person already had a daughter who was 10 years old! So, she had gotten pregnant when she was in high school, at the age of 16 and had still managed to go through college and end up there in graduate school, getting her Master's. Oh and she was already a full-time Kindergarten teacher! I decided, if I do decide to continue on to PhD (which I was seriously considering since I loved college so much), I will wait. I will really try to "have a life" and be able to be in the classroom and really be able to "add value".
Now, 4 years later, here I am, back in school. I am not completing my PhD or any other degree for that matter. I am not even sure if I will go on to complete any sort of program but one thing I notice about myself and about the people around me is, the education age should go up! I understand the first 17 years or so of education that you must go through from infancy all the way until teenage years. However, after you "become of age" or of legal age at least, you need a break! I feel like if not all, most people are not prepared psychologically and socially to go onto study a trade or subject that they will later get a job for. This is the reason I particularly like the American Education System with opportunities such as these community colleges. If a student so chooses, he or she can attend community college and not be a "full-time student" and only take courses at his or her own leisure. Perhaps he or she wants to work part-time while attending school. Perhaps he or she wants to travel! Oh and traveling is the best! Working and traveling are probably the most useful things one can do before really settling in to first of all choosing a field to study and then pursuing one in college.
In my opinion, the best system would be one where after students graduate from college at the age of 17 or 18 (whenever they started school as that differs depending on the culture or background), he or she has to work (and this doesn't even have to be a paid position.) It could be a sort of vocational school very similar to community colleges where students will be trained and also work. Perhaps after a brief 3-6 month "trial period" the student can start to get compensated. Once the student completes these "2 years", he or she will be eligible to apply to an undergraduate program. In addition, during these 2 years, he or she can have opportunities to travel and "work" or "study" abroad for a semester or two. During these 2 years, he or she also has opportunities to take electives so that the person can really get a a sense of what each field entails. In this way, when the student begins undergraduate school, he or she is already 19-21 years old, so maybe he or she is already a legal alcoholic drinker as well, because let's face it! That's another really big problem. Most drunk drivers who get into really bad accidents and end up killing themselves and others are under-age drinkers who drank too much at so and so frat parties in college!
In the end, whether this educational system of mine ends up happening in the next decades or not, the educational age should definitely go up! People can attend undergraduate college right after high school if they so prefer but people, at least wait a couple of years before you go right into graduate school!! In this way, not only will you have a much better idea about what you want to study, but you will also know how to study! You will take the education much more seriously. You will value it more. You will know how to plan your time in a more productive manner. But then again, it can really depend on the person as many people don't actually learn these skills like...ever!
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