The good news about college students
To balance out the last post about college students with an inflated sense of entitlement, I thought we’d like to read what Garrison Keillor wrote this week:
“Last spring I taught a college writing course and had the privilege of hanging out with people in their early twenties, an inspirational experience in return for which I tried to harass them about spelling and grammar and structure. My interest in being 21 again is less than my interest in having a frontal lobotomy, but the wit and passion and good-heartedness of these kids, which they try to conceal under their exquisite cool, are the hope of this country. You have to advocate for young people, or else what are we here for?”
That last line is as true as statement as you’ll hear. As is the line about being 21 again.
Technorati Tags: Garrison Keillor, College, College Students, University, University Students
September 1st, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Ah, 21. Back when I considered two double whoppers a light nutritious snack. Those were the days.
September 1st, 2006 at 6:03 pm
I haven’t taught at the college level for over a decade now, but I did have the privelege this week of substitute teaching a 5th grade class at a school that encourages the kids to write, write, write. At ages 10-11, they are not yet entrenched in being/being seen as cool and they write so unself-consciously and openly. Whether fiction or journals, their writings are sweet, funny, insightful and totally without pretense. If we can truly take to heart and action Keillor’s last statement, and add a bit of nurturing in there also, these kids will be the hope of this country. I’d also pass on being 21 again, although I sure wish a few of my body parts looked that age again.
September 1st, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Yeah, Deborah–5th grade is the best! You described it exactly. I read somewhere that a person already knows what he or she wants to be by 5th grade. Then we either nurture it or squelch it.