No More Professors

While simultaneously scrolling through Naviance in preparation for my upcoming college counselor meeting, an article about college professors caught my eye (I know, shocking). The article argues that professors "will fall low on the ladder of meaningful contacts" as college graduates reflect on their education. At first, this was very startling to me. As a high school student, I couldn't imagine not having a connection with one of my teachers; I'm not sure I could have survived the year without speaking to teachers outside of class and getting extra help. I realize that high school class sizes are smaller than the average college course, but I still found this a little surprising.

In my opinion, the goal of any teacher is to help their students learn and grow while receiving a good education. I think that most teachers want to have meaningful connections with their students, or at least reflecting on all of my teachers in the past I feel that they do. I can't speak from experience about college professors, but I assume they are similar. Yet only 1/3 of freshman students speak to their professor outside of class, and 42% meet with them on occasion. Freshman year is the scariest year of all; everything is new and different than you are used to, and there is a heavier workload. It seems that freshman year should be a logical year for students to meet with professors and possibly start connections that will continue with them for the rest of their schooling. How else would students know more about the subject they are learning, or decide if it is a possible subject they wish to pursue the following year?

The lack of student involvement with professors may be a result of our society's beliefs. The author of the article argues that it's barely the students fault; many of them are involved in numerous extracurriculars and have more distractions, especially with technology, than ever before. I feel like this relates well to students at my school, since in general we strive to do as much as possible and become a "well-rounded" person. However, the purpose of attending college is to further your education and make these important connections, which is something we may be losing. In a study reported in this article, in 1967 86% of students objectives in college was to "develop a meaningful philosophy of life" while around 40% reported that their objectives was to be "very well-off financially". In our world today, the percentages have reversed. Is this what our society has come to? Do we really only hope to gain money and "success" out of an education?