Early reports seem to confirm the rumours of yesterday. The Virginia Tech Mass Murderer was a student at the college.
I went to college. I loved it and I hated it. And believe me when I say right now that at my small Indiana college there were at least three people I could have easily seen break down in this same way. In fact, we used to joke about one of them openly. Our school had a “bell tower”, although I don’t know if there are actual bells in it–to me they always sounded like a recording of a carillon, not the actual thing. We would kid around about not letting So-and-So near the bell tower or joke with his roommate about hiding ladders and high-powered rifles.
I don’t think any of us ever said one thing to university authorities about how unhinged these people were. Why would we? Most of us were chronologically adults but functionally adolescent. That social dynamic was one of the most terrifying parts of college for me. Here we were, a bunch of people who didn’t even know how to cope with the stress of a really hard Russian Studies exam being told that we were preparing for The Adult World.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t understand that logic, and it’s one of the reasons I left after my second year. How exactly was having all our meals provided to us, all our housing taken care of and not earning any money a preparation for adulthood? How was sitting under a tree and talking about leading German thinkers and metaphysics going to help me pay a light bill in the outside world? Don’t get me wrong. I loved all that stuff. If I had my way I would have been a college student forever. I would roll out of bed, throw on comfy clothes, go eat the nice hot breakfast some poor schmoe woke up at 4:30 to fix for me and then Talk About Ideas all day. (In fact, that’s one of the things I love about blogging. It’s some of what I loved about college, without any hackysack.)
But life doesn’t work that way, and some of the worst pressures come from knowing that at the end of the line you’ve got to be ready to get out there and be productive. I personally decided to get out there two years early in order to preserve my sanity. How many kids don’t? How many kids, believing that the only path to success is a four-year college degree earned in the traditional manner, crack under the strain?
I don’t know why this young man–boy?–man?–did what he did. I’m sure the news shows and talk shows and newspapers and blogs will chat about it for the next couple of weeks. I do think, however, that it might be a good idea for us to talk about the reality of college and how we deal with those who are broken by it.
Update: After I hammered this out, I surfed over to bridgett’s world. Check out what she has to say about all of this from a Prof’s perspective.
[...] to add: Go read what Kat has to say about college [...]
There’s all sorts of colleges. I teach at a liberal arts school (not a trade or professional school), so we don’t pretend that we’re teaching students how to earn a living. They come seeking tools to enrich their lives, improve their communities, help them become better citizens, and leave with a desire to shape the world. They’ll learn critical thinking, they’ll learn how to write, they’ll learn how to observe and how to create and how to work toward a goal with other people — nothing they couldn’t learn outside of school for free, but probably not in a way that encouraged them to be reflective and integrative about their experiences. (Unless they wound up in the jug for a while…life just keeps moving and there’s not a lot of time for cerebration.) The liberal arts is not everyone’s game, however. Some people (like my brother the engineer) want an education that is aimed at getting them a specific job rather than one that prepares them to face life’s contingencies even when one’s lifeplan is swept away.
I will note that the college shootings that stand out in my mind have targeted professional schools (engineering, particularly…) and have been carried out by professional school students (engineers, law school students). I draw no inferences and I hope the sample remains small. However, it makes me wonder if maybe the narrow high-pressure path to vocational success is emotionally healthy, even if very few people ultimately explode.
I teach at a liberal arts school (not a trade or professional school), so we don’t pretend that we’re teaching students how to earn a living.
My first college (the one where I lived on campus) was a liberal arts school. I started in the fall of 1988, and I think that perhaps the expectation for a LibArts degree was different than it is now. I know that I went expecting to lay the foundation for law school, go to law school and then become wealthy and successful.
Of course, this was at the tail end of the Gordon Gekko decade, where “wealthy” and “successful” were synonymous and college was not as ubiquitous as it is now.
Funnily enough, I think I’ve come out of college “successful” even though I’m far from wealthy. If I accept a postmodern definition of “success”, that is.
I will note that the college shootings that stand out in my mind have targeted professional schools
Very good point. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I will point out, too, that all three of the students I thought of for my example were in the Comp-sci branch of the school, which was the closest thing we had to a vo-pro school.
Maybe those of us in the liberal arts realise that we’re already on a winding enough path that perhaps a few extra bends in the road won’t sink us.
[...] 17th, 2007 by Katherine Coble Just immediately downstairs we’re talking about college and what makes a person a success. As any writer will tell you, measuring success in a writing life requires the use of a different [...]
At my liberal arts undergrad school, the guy we called Skylab (because he was clearly going down and falling apart and maybe he’d take some of us out as well) was a CS student. Most professional programs have a very tight curriculum; miss a step, flunk a class, miss the GPA cutoff for the upper-tier classes and you’re out with nowhere else to apply those credits because they are so discipline-specific…so it’s not like you can transfer two years of mechanical engineering credits and make them count towards philosophy. There’s little room for changing one’s mind, freaking out, or stumbling. Professional schools typically have very large class sizes in the intro classes (lectures of 100-300 people) and so the prof might never get to know a student individually to spot trouble signs and get the student help. I think there’s probably also a macho culture of “sink or swim” where students are discouraged from admitting they need help. But people who are professional program graduates can speak better to that.
Something that may not be apparent to people outside the academic world is the pressure on foreign students. International students (many of whom are attracted to the high quality of US professional programs) are here on study visas. If they can’t hack the work or have problems adapting to American culture (18 years old and living abroad for the first time can play with anyone’s head), they are shipped home fast. Some just can’t deal with the shame after their families have made such huge sacrifices to get them to the US to begin with.
Depression is soaring on college campuses and so are suicide attempts. (About 25k students attempt to kill themselves every year; about 1,100 of those kids succeed.) This, too, is a greater problem for international students, as they are usually poorly integrated into the social life and services that colleges provide and may come from home cultures that discourage admitting one is having problems. Few notice when they begin to show the warning signs of stress — erratic attendance, problem drinking, withdrawal from social contact, disinterest in personal appearance. (American observers often see this as part of the “weirdness” of foreign students rather than a cry for help.) If foreign students have the attendant health complaints that come with depression (poor memory, headaches, poor concentration), they might not have anyone to tell — and of course, all these things impede academic performance.
Perhaps it’s because I went to a small liberal arts college, but I actually feel college was an excellent step in the path to adulthood for me. By the time I graduated high school (actually from about the time I started my senior year), I was CRAVING something new in my life. Perhaps I could have just run out and got a job and started a life on my own, but I can only guess that that would have been FAR more stressful for me than college was. College (both in class and, perhaps especially, out of class) was a chance for me to make my own decisions, take alot more responsibility, but still be “safe” (if I screwed up once, it didn’t mean that I would go hungry or be sleeping on the streets). I earned plenty of money as an RA for 3 out of four years (I didn’t think it was “plenty” at the time, but considering I had pretty much no expenses while in school, I now realize that had I been smart enough to save all those paychecks I could have come close to paying off my students loans straight away after graduation). College was the perfect interim step for me out of high school, and I feel I entered the “adult world” much better off for having been through college.
Now where I think you might have a point is that college is not for everyone. In the US, we tend to push college as the ONLY path. I think we need to stop putting so much importance on a college degree. Unfortunately right now we, as a society, believe that what a piece of paper says you know is more important than what you actually know. I went to school with a young lady who wanted her whole life to be a beautician. Her parents wanted her to go to college so she spent four years and a whole lot of their money (her parents were filthy rich so i guess for them it wasn’t a big deal) to earn a degree which not probably sits in her closet not doing her any good. I talked to her about a year or two after graduation, she’s working in a hair salon (and loving it).
Just to clarify, do you think college is too stressful or not stressful enough. Different parts of your post seem to indicate opposite opinions so I’m having trouble getting a read on what you’re saying.
do you think college is too stressful or not stressful enough
Good question. I think it’s probably both.
There’s a lot of stress in college for the college-y things. (See bridgett’s post…she nails it.) But there are sometimes areas where there isn’t enough stress placed on long-term life issues; things like credit cards and student loans.
Of course, I’m speaking primarily through the prism of my own existence, and that’s colouring my opinion. I spent a term abroad (London) and that really hit me hard. I had fantasies about living over there, studying and working. The reality of how expensive and difficult that would be and how ill-prepared I was for such a thing in the long term caused me to do a lot of thinking. I came away feeling as though college was preparing me very well for critical thinking, intelligent discussion, etc. but NOT necessarily for the “real world” things like getting a job, house, mortgage, etc.
So for me that’s where I get the “not stressful enough” bit. Of course, that’s probably partially because of my personality, temperment and individual undergrad experience.
“Now where I think you might have a point is that college is not for everyone. In the US, we tend to push college as the ONLY path.”
I completely agree.
I did graduate with an engineering degree, so I feel like I should have something insightful to add, but I don’t know if that is the case. I started out in the arts and sciences colleges, and I loved the idea of taking classes like Greek and various humanities, but I did switch to engineering because I felt like I could be productive in that field, I just didn’t see what I could “do” in other fields (this is just me personally, I’m not saying liberal arts students are useless or anything like that).
The curriculum is very stressful, and I could see how someone mentally/emotionally unstable could go nuts. To some degree, however, someone chooses how much pressure to put themselves under in school. I didn’t have to graduate in 4 to 5 years. Taking 9 to 12 hours vs. 15-18 is a big difference in the stress level.
“I think there’s probably also a macho culture of “sink or swim” where students are discouraged from admitting they need help. But people who are professional program graduates can speak better to that.”
Maybe with some people who tend to be loners or have a macho thing going on. On the whole, I think people belonging to the same program are very codependent and tend to rely on each other very heavily, and do things like study groups. It’s almost like a small family. Office hours and optional discussion sections seemed to be heavily frequented as well.
However, maybe those who go psycho tend to have issues with human interaction.
Well, according to early reports, the guy was a 23-year-old South Korean senior graduating with an English major…which makes me wonder why the targeting of the engineering building (except that engineering buildings typically have a lot of classroom space, which would account for why a German class would have been held there). Disregard prior speculations about how prof school curriculums might contribute to making kids mental. Those might be valid observations, but apparently not relevant to understanding this particular sad event.
South Korea has a mandatory 2-year military service provision, incidentally. The kid arrived in the US with substantial weapons training (which used to be US-funded and conducted…not sure about whether that’s still the case). Most South Korean college students who come to the US have already done their service stint, which is why they are typically a little older. I wonder if any of the folks who try to make this about guns in the US will reckon with that dimension…how bitterly our foreign entanglements come back to bite us in the ass.
Disregard prior speculations about how prof school curriculums might contribute to making kids mental. Those might be valid observations, but apparently not relevant to understanding this particular sad event.
They were good points, though.
And as I said in the other thread about Fiction writing, I’ve sat through plenty of lit classes that made ME nearly suicidal. Not joking. Hours and hours of your life spent reading some of the gravest and most depressing accounts of the worst in humanity can make anyone bleak.
If you’re already struggling with the International Student thing that you (bridgett) mentioned, the Korean culture thing, etc. I don’t see how being an English major is going to contribute any sunny-ness to your disposition.
As to the foreign entanglements issue….very good point, but one I doubt will come up. Seeing as how everyone’s trying to keep the Korea issue from boiling over.
bridgett,
I probably should have included the military service part at my place, but I focused on the emphasis on education in Korean culture. The only thing to compare it to in American culture is fame and wealth.
In South Korea, social status is determined by educational attainment.
I make no claims as to whether that was a contributing factor here, it’s just a Korean factoid most Americans don’t know.
Slarti — hadn’t read you yet today. Thanks for the insights. Yes, to refer to “international students” as though they are all the same would be a mistake, as Korean students have particular issues (including being lumped with Japanese students in everything over here — the American inability to discern differences among Asian people is legendary) that make their row to hoe difficult.
The South Korean press insists he emigrated a long time ago (we’re not responsible for this). The American media believe he’s a recent arrival (the “maladjusted loner” angle, I’m betting). Spin, spin, spinnity, spin — this is a perfect example of how we embrace the stories we need to believe, regardless of their veracity. The answer to whether he was a long-timer resident or on a student visa and thus returning to SK at the end of the semester, whether he served in the SK military or whether he got his gun knowledge here matters to figuring out what happened and why…so I’m going to shut up and quit trying to prematurely analyze until the story settles down a little.
Well, I’m older than most of you here. When I went to college a generation ago, only the pre-professionals (pre-law, pre-med) seemed to be under the kind of pressure being described here. Even the engineering students (we had a huge engineering school) and computer science kids were into the intellectual excitement, felt they were on the cutting edge of things (thinking back about developments in those fields at the time, they were probably right). That didn’t mean that we didn’t put tremendous pressure on ourselves–my group of friends, at least, was a bright bunch of kids and wanted to do our personal best. But all of us were aware (and, at the time, it was true) that good grades in the humanities would guarantee us good starting jobs at any kind of work requiring good writing skills. So we could have the intellectual excitement and still be preparing for the future. And, of course, goof off when appropriate.
Ever since the ’80s, though, there have been fewer and fewer good jobs all the time. So the pressure mounts. It’s bad enough in the humanities: students are constantly having to justify wanting to study something that interests them. But for the pre-professional students, it must be murder; straight As are not enough so they have to be perfect; then they get to law school or whatever and find that the first year is deliberately designed to weed out the ones who “can’t take it.”
I think the problem is that our economy (in terms of middle class and high-wage working class jobs) has been shrinking for 20 years, so there’s more pressure on the college students plus more kids in college for the wrong reasons. It’s no coincidence that drinking has become such a problem on campuses during the same period.
But all of us were aware (and, at the time, it was true) that good grades in the humanities would guarantee us good starting jobs at any kind of work requiring good writing skills.
I think that was my parents’ view on things (they graduated undergrad in 1961). When the time came for me to go to college, that was what they told me, and that was what I started out believing.
Right around the time I went to London I was suspecting that may not be so true for my generation as it had been for my parents.
A year later I was pretty dead certain that if I didn’t get into Law School there was no way I could get a job earning enough to pay back my college debt. And I wasn’t even thrilled about going to Law School, because I wanted to be a Legal Aid attorney, and talking with various folks who did that for a living I found out they made less than I could make waiting tables. I knew there wasn’t much cash in Legal Aid, but I couldn’t see how it was remotely wise to keep racking up bills I had no way of paying, and I didn’t think it was wise to go to Law School if I couldn’t ever afford to be the type of attorney I wanted to be.