Why the youth have a carefree attitude towards their studies
We spend the better days of a semester leading hedonistic lives and then, like politicians, hurriedly pull off stunts by cramming for exams towards the end.
What you need to know:
- The puzzle that most of us are yet to solve is if education is directly proportional to income after graduation.
- We grapple with courses we have zero interest in because we were told they would lead safe and rewarding careers.
In a Facebook post, Chomba Njoka noted that most high-school, college and university students have a laissez-faire approach to academics and life in general.
In the evocative piece, he rues his failure to appreciate the importance of good grades or studying hard. Though he managed average grades with lazy studying, he says he’d have done better with some hard work.
The bottom line of his insightful write-up is that looking back, he wished he’d pushed harder in his younger days as he was forced to catch up later at a greater cost and time.
I cannot help but concur with him and be woeful for my generation.
Increasingly, we settle for less on matters education. We harbour a disastrous don’t-care attitude.
From my observations in campus, “comrades” are just like politicians. We spend the better days of a semester leading hedonistic lives and then, like politicians, hurriedly pull off stunts by cramming for exams towards the end. No wonder, great academic feats will forever remain to be things we read in history.
But what drives most of us to assume this free-style approach to life?
First, it is the uncertainty over what the unforeseeable future holds. “What if we don’t make it in life? What if the hopes, prayers, money and goodwill that our families have invested in us never pay off?” we ponder.
Second, we lack mentors – people who will be thought partners in our academic journeys, who understand aspirations and fears. Role models have long sank into oblivion and the only people we look up to are politicians and celebrities.
Third, the puzzle that most of us are yet to solve is if education is directly proportional to income after graduation. We grapple with courses we have zero interest in because we were told they would lead safe and rewarding careers.
According to Njoka, we should work, sacrifice, delay gratification, be patient, be loyal and lead progressive, goal-oriented, step-by-step lives. I think if get used to this rather than the free-style, disconnected and carefree life, a bright future awaits.
Thomas, 20, studies Media and Journalism at Moi University.
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