There comes a time in every young whippersnapper’s life when he or she must question the established order of things. Each of us at some point has probably heard the call of childhood and felt liberty’s gentle yet anxious tug on your coattails as you mechanically scribble down notes from a lecture you probably won’t even attempt to remember until that 12 hour span before your next exam.
From time to time you look up from your vaguely interesting doodles and unkempt notes to glance hopelessly out of the window, waiting for the final word from your professor to indicate that your tortured time spent here is up. Before your professor can even say, “I’ll see you next cl—” you are packed and out of the door.
Fast forward a few weeks and you find yourself seated in your professor’s office begging for those few extra points you need to push you from that subpar B+ or A- to that ever elusive A, thereby successfully distinguishing yourself from the barely average navel gazers who merely occupy space in the desks adjacent to you; not to mention, you are not above the strategic use of water works and the occasional half-baked sob story about that sick pet parakeet you don’t own to soften your professor’s resolve — anything to look good on paper, I suppose.
Realistically speaking, for many students it does not really matter whether or not they will have actually retained the pages of relatively useful information they have spent the past six precious morning hours cramming into their skulls before that big exam, or if they have genuinely grasped the point some dead guy made in a semi-relevant book hundreds of years ago; no, what really matters is that they are able to regurgitate it in a relatively well-placed manner such that they successfully convince their professors that the past semester has not been a complete waste of everyone’s time, and thus make the desired grade.
Indeed, a quick glance around the Internet will show just how far many students are willing to actually go to get that A. From purchasing pre-made academic essays online to neglecting important, developmental aspects of life such as healthy socialization, it seems that students today will do just about anything to secure a desirable final grade.
Take, for example, the rising abuse of prescription stimulants among college students across the nation. A recent study posted in the USCience Review indicates that about 15 percent of college students have admitted to using some form of psychotherapeutic drugs for non-medical use. Of those 15 percent, 7 percent have confessed to using drugs such as Adderall to increase attention span, party or improve grades.
Contrary to popular belief, however, many reputable physicians warn against the abuse of drugs such as Adderall for its high risk of dependence, potentially detrimental bodily side effects and unforeseen psychological consequences ranging from tolerance to depression.
And I would venture to say that these students have very good reason to employ these tactics; certainly, there are very few things in young, dreamy-eyed college students’ sad lives that compare to the feeling of accomplishment they get after receiving an A on that paper they have slaved over for weeks (and by weeks I mean those past couple of sleepless nights before it was due).
Not only do these students feel a sense of accomplishment, but there is also a sense of security as they prepare themselves to enter a culture intent on ascribing one’s usefulness to society in terms of stagnant, irresponsive numbers, such as a grade point average. Surely, a person’s grade point average may have a lot to say about work ethic, and, to some extent, intellectual ability, but it has little to report in regard to said person’s potentiality as an individual thinking thing, or even his or her ability to function well in society.
As such, students, their educators and potential future employers, should focus on active engagement in a learning process that students will hopefully view as less of an obligation and more so as beneficial for becoming a better human being, and thus, a better functioning member of society, as opposed to merely using it as a means by which one hopefully secures a “safe” position in this neo-Darwinistic, socioeconomic hierarchy, irrespective of the costs.
