Introduction
Education has always been a mixed bag. Governments try to standardize it, and in so doing often stop teachers from doing their best. Yet, without some sort of standard, education would be practically meaningless. At least, that is the general idea.
Often, when people talk about education, they ask “What does it mean to be a teacher?” or “What is worth teaching in school?”. I think the better question to ask is “what does it mean to be a student?”. Honestly, this question did not pop into my mind until very recently, but I think subconsciously I have been living out the answer.
Entering college, for me, was a “reset.” During my growing-up years, I started to care more about the grade I received in a class. I still enjoyed learning, but I became distracted by the reputation I thought I needed to uphold. I had so many required classes, or Advanced Placement classes that could help my GPA and therefore help me get into college, and I wanted my grades to be perfect. But when I came to college, I had the opportunity to take classes that genuinely interested me.
To Be a Student is to Learn What Is Relevant
This leads to my first “point:” students should be learning what is relevant to them. Over the course of my college career, I have probably taken more electives than necessary because the courses were relevant to me. I took Japanese in my freshman year because I wanted to travel to Japan. I took Literature and Leadership my sophomore year because I thought I could learn from stories in a way I cannot from nonfiction writing. I took Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in my junior year because I thought AI was cool. And in my senior year I took Harry Potter and the Conflict of Being because I enjoy Harry Potter and believed there were lessons I could learn from it (indeed, it has even impacted my philosophy of education). I added a minor because the minor was interesting to me and I felt like I could apply what I learned from it in the real world.
Even most of my required classes have aligned with what I considered relevant. I was not taking classes simply because I was required to. I was taking classes because they taught me essential knowledge about the field I wanted to go into. Even classes I didn’t enjoy had the benefit of teaching me what I don’t want to do for the rest of my life. And sometimes they sparked interest in other areas as well.
For example, while I was taking Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, I had a lot of fun. I really liked working with models of Pac-Man and teaching Pac-Man how to play his game for himself. This sparked my interest in Video Game programming and robotics. So, I took Game Development for the XBOX 360 and Introduction to Robotics. After taking both courses, I knew that game development appealed to me more than robotics, which I found far less exciting to code.
Having the ability to explore different areas while attending college is truly a blessing. A student can choose whatever classes they find most relevant to them, and by taking those classes, make judgments about which classes are truly relevant to an eventual career, and what career they find most interesting.
To Be a Student is to Learn How to Learn
In a lot of ways, college is not about what degree you get. It’s about getting a degree at all. Making it through college is a testament to a person’s adaptability and dedication. What college really proves is that you have learned how to learn.
School cannot teach you all that you need to know for whatever job field you want to enter. This is especially true with computer science. To get through a class you have to be willing to teach yourself. I realized this fairly early on, starting in my second computer science class, Data Structures. Lectures during data structures used examples and C++ code, but the intricacies of writing classes in C++ could not all be covered during class, especially since the focus of class was not the language, but the general principles. I remember my first homework assignment for that class taking me a very long time just because of compilation errors. In other classes I had to learn other languages like Python, Java, and Scala. Had I waited for the professor to teach me everything about the languages I probably would not have made it through the courses. Even non-computer science classes usually required outside learning and research.
In order to succeed in college you have to be willing to take charge of your learning. You cannot rely on the professor for everything you have to know. This comes as a shock to a lot of freshman.
During my learning assistant office hours, I would have all sorts of students come with various degrees of completion on homework assignments. Some would have all sorts of strange (and sometimes wrong) code and some would come in with blank programs. I would ask the students what they had done so far and explain their thought process on why they did it. Students with code may have done the assignments wrong, but they always had a reason behind their code and because they had tried would figure out the solution in very little time. Students who came in with blank programs often would tell me that they didn’t know how to start, and would leave it at that.
This usually (but not always) told me which students cared about learning and which students cared about grades alone. Students with blank programs often wanted me to do the assignment for them. Students who brought in code usually had pointed questions that enhanced their understanding of the problem and very often they found the solution on their own without much help from me.
You could say that these students were simply at different stages of the learning process. Some had not yet internalized the importance of learning how to learn, while others had already mastered it. I always enjoyed it when students who had started out coming to office hours with blank programs came to office hours with lots of code and specific questions. It meant they had learned how to learn.
By learning how to learn, and taking charge of your learning, you can achieve goals and dreams that would otherwise be out of reach.
To Be a Student is to Be Resourceful
As a Learning Assistant for the introductory computer science course, I am quite aware of the resources available to students. There is a plethora of resources online in addition to the well-written textbooks that are normally assigned to the class, not to mention the actual lecture. Yet, despite having all these resources available to students, many students would come in with absolutely no idea of the next step or where to begin looking.
As mentioned earlier, had I not done my own research I would never have figured out half my classes. Knowing how to look up information on sites like Google, knowing how to scan a web page or article for relevant information, and knowing how to actually find information in a textbook is an important life skill. Many beginning students do not know how to do this, and I think it is one of the main skills gained through education.
In many ways education is a safe environment for students to learn everyday skills and how to use them effectively both inside and outside of class. There won’t always be teachers around to tell you what to do or how to do it. Learning to be resourceful is key to doing anything in life. This doesn’t always mean googling for an answer; it may mean knowing the right people to ask for help, like when I have students come into my learning assistant office hours. Nonetheless it is a skill that is essential.
Of course, there are also times when the professor is not providing the resources he or she needs to provide in lecture, and that can be frustrating. But life can be like that too. It may not be ideal, or seem unfair, but learning how to get through that — knowing what resources are available to compensate — is also valuable tool.
How I Have Treated My Education
These three areas have been very large in my own education. As mentioned above, college was an opportunity for me to explore all sorts of interests in my life to find out what I really wanted to do. It is both a help and a hindrance. My sometimes eclectic choice of electives has made it difficult for me to specialize, but it also has made me more adaptable. I am comfortable trying new things and am willing to put the work into learning them.
Knowing how to google is probably one of the reasons I made it through college. Like I stated in the above passages, my classes could not provide me with everything I needed to know. Outside learning through examples, tutorials, and articles was important and essential, and finding good tutorials, examples, and articles required good googling.
For most of my classes, I have aimed for getting good grades, but I have also been aiming for understanding the concepts. If my grade was lower because I struggled in a course, but by the end I had learned the material, I categorized the class as a success.
Even more importantly, every class that I could leave saying “I liked that” or “I didn’t like that” helped push me towards my calling. It may still be a bit nebulous, but it has been narrowed down.
In the end, the focus of my education was to learn and explore as much as possible, both for the fun of learning and also for the skills and techniques each class has left me with. In some ways this makes life after college more difficult, but in the long run I think it will be a great benefit.