summatives, post-secondary education, money
so, i've been working on my challenge and change course summative. AND IT'S A LOT OF WORK. i have so much work piling on top of me with school and so much other things and post-secondary applications, so it got me thinking (because i was loafting at the same time), like, 50 years ago school wasn't this demanding, heck a high schooler could've found a nice job and end up earning like six figures in no time.
but now, graduation with JUST a BA, well then, good luck with that. It seems like everyone now is aiming for post-secondary and graduate studies because this is what society says is the right path towards the goal of being filthy friggen rich.
sure society says this is the right way to go, but how did this message get implanted into our heads exactly?
i say it's through our family and the many many many many years we've spent in school.
These are normative influences in our lives, influences that we have not sought out, influences that passively influence our thinking over time.
in school they're always talking about post secondary education blahblahblah, but most teachers assume that kids are aiming for "university level education". and no matter how much they suck at something, most kids would rather take a 60 in a U level course over a 90 in a C course, just so they can at least apply into university. i'm pretty sure most (not all, but most) parents do think that for their children to be highly successful in the future, university is the way to go and college, well...it's more meh~~ when put in comparison to university.
to put it frankly: university > college
however, i'm pretty sure this is not true. AT. ALL. people can be more "successful" being a...hair stylist (no offence to hair stylists out there, just using a trade as an example) than being a teacher!
(to be honest, i think having passion is more important)
and so what if you get into university? the funny thing is, once you enter into the "univeristy" tier, guess what? UNIVERSITIES ARE RANKED TOO!!!
so then becomes the reference group vs. out groups kinda thing.
or in normal english: us vs them
sure it's "friendly rivalry", but really, would you represent the other school, when you obviously think your school is better?
i've visited one of my top choices for universities a few weeks back, and their school spirit completely blew me away. it's funny, in their gift shop, they even have shot glasses with little markings on the side for the measurement of liquid. but instead of having the measurements printed down by the markings, they have school names instead. at he very bottom of the glass, is the top rival school, and as you go up the glass, it means that those universities are better liked by this university. at the very top of this glass, the name that is sitting on top of all the names of other universities, is their own name. (very patriotic in a school sense)
and while this is all for fun and is done in a good nature and whatnot, won't this cause tension between universities? between people? no matter how little? sure when we graduate it's won't really matter any more, but i'm pretty sure some employers will look at which university you graduated from when they hire you. and it might make a difference in who gets hired and who gets rejected.
maybe i got this wrong, maybe i'm biased, maybe i'm just looking at things from a "university applicant" POV.
but is our society demanding to much with BAs and Grad school and w/e? why do most people encourage university over college? and is there a tiny bit of discrimination from one university to the next? no matter how small?
and doesn't this all boil down to everyone wanting to be on the top of the social ladder (or for some, the top chunk of the socio-economic pyramid) and filthy friggen rich?
well people, money might make the world go round, but it doesn't always make you happy.
