College: a time to challenge, learn and grow
Joe Larson
Principles of Idiocracy
As we all know, college is a bewildering and fascinating institution that we all struggle through in some way or another, trying not to hurt ourselves and most of the time, anyone else. It has become a rite of passage in the United States for any high school senior who can spell his own name to attend a post-secondary university in order to, if not anything else, just kind of delay the inevitable and hang around kids his own age for a little while longer.
We are all extremely fortunate that this is the case and are lucky we all grew up in a time when we don't have to go to the army or start working in our fathers' bakeries after high school graduation. Instead, we get to move out of our parents' houses and go to college, which means we take classes and immerse ourselves in college culture.
Now, college culture, if we can call it that, isn't necessarily the most mature and adult establishment in our generation's milieu, but as much as Father Poorman wants to control what we call "culture," it is a prevalent and important part of our age group's development.
The title of this column is "Principles of Idiocracy." We, my friends, are the idiots that make up the idiocracy. You may not consider yourself an idiot. You are. We all are.
Think about the absurdity of college living as it stands. I bet half this campus doesn't get out of bed until after 12 p.m. I bet even more of the students here don't actually go to bed until at least one or two in the morning. And that's just the beginning.
The main "job" students have is their schoolwork. Our "job" is to go to class and learn things, and if we're too tired or hungover we have the option of simply skipping class. There are not really any serious repercussions for it. Unless you're taking Attendance 101, your attendance grade is probably only a small fraction of the actual grade you're going to receive for the class. I'm not condoning skipping class here, but think about it. If you skip class once, what happens to you? Absolutely nothing. Most professors give you three skips, no questions asked. For three classes out of the 12 weeks you have in the semester you are totally allowed to skip work without notifying your employer and nothing happens to you. How absurd is that?
And that's just class and stuff. Poorman and his supporters are right. College students drink a copious amount of alcohol. Really, we do. When you go to a bar or a party around here, there are certainly a lot of drunk people walking around. But, doubters and naysayers, this is the point.
College is the only time when drinking copious amounts of alcohol is not only socially acceptable, but encouraged. And subsequently rewarding because people think you know how to party.
We are young people who are no longer living with our parents anymore. Everything is taken to the extreme. College is the first time in young people's lives when they are finally and totally in charge of themselves as people. Not as real people, because most of the time they're not flipping the bills or taking care of the serious and less fun things, but as college students they are in charge of themselves as social entities. This is why college is a time for young adults to be a little wacky and even a tiny bit reckless within the boundaries of safety.
It's like the first time you try to ride a bike. I don't think anyone ever just jumped on their first BMX and rode it around the block without any imperfections. You either fell down or used training wheels or were made fun of so much by the other kids in your neighborhood that you had to learn how to ride. But you learned, didn't you? It took time and practice, but you learned how to ride the bike. And once you learn, you can pick it up again any time, right?
Well, if that's what it takes to ride a bike, why should it be any different for someone learning to be an adult? After my high school graduation am I supposed to be magically transformed into a fully functional, bill-paying, wholly responsible adult? Hell no, I'm not.
College is a place where people are allowed to try things and experience things that they haven't before. And, as the person grows and learns from his mistakes, only then can he become an understanding and competent adult. Wisdom is gained through knowledge, and knowledge comes from screw-ups.
This is why college kids are so wacky. They're trying to figure stuff out. And that's also why it is wholly detrimental to the development of the students here to be stifled by rules that do not allow them to think and act for themselves.
Joe Larson is senior English and history major. His column appears every other Wednesday. He would like to invite any of you who have read this column and don't find it entirely annoying to Lafortune Ballroom on Thursday at 7 p.m. for two original one-act plays. Joe wrote and directed the first play, entitled "The Common Room," in which four freshmen males discuss beer, freshmen females and Sega. Contact him at jlarson@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, April 10, 2002
