I spoke to a fellow a couple of days ago who’s in the third world politics course that I’m taking. I asked him if he’d dropped the American history course that we had both started out in at the beginning of the semester; I asked because I hadn’t seem him in class for two weeks, and the class meets three times a week. “No,” he says. “I can bullshit my way through that professor’s tests, so I don’t come to class that often.” I just kind of nodded and went back to what I was doing at the time. By the way, that fellow’s major is history.

I’m not stupid; I realize that many view college as just a way to get a piece of paper which has, more or less, become a requirement to get your foot into the workplace door. Certainly, I want to get one of those slips of paper, too. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But why has the desire to learn – to really learn, and not just cram to ace a test – declined so much? Maybe I’m being too idealistic in my views, but it seems to me that when you look at the behavior of higher education students in earlier time periods, they really did learn. Formerly, most students strived to master the material; now students regularly skip class because they know they can “bullshit their way through the tests.” It seems that the standards have dropped, and by a lot. What happened?

However, maybe I’m trying to graft my likes onto others. Learning for me isn’t a chore; I love it, actually, and it’s a huge part of who I am. If anything, maybe I go too far in the opposite direction: maybe I try to learn too much. I often feel like old Bilbo, “stretched thin,” like butter scraped over too much bread. I’ll find myself juggling different topics, often having to drop some until a later time. However, I try to always have something on the “learning burner,” so to speak, and thinking back, I honestly can’t remember the last time I wasn’t pursuing one subject or another. To me, the idea of taking a class and then purposefully skipping out and not learning anything, is just stupid.

What’s your take on the subject? Where does learning new stuff – regardless of what it is – rank in your life? High? Low? Not on the radar at all, as long as you’re having a good time? Do you think standards of education have dropped a lot in the past, say, century?

I’ll get in and be waiting in the hallway to enter the libary proper at around 7:30. Invariably – and I really do mean invariably – while I’m waiting, someone will come into the hallway. I’ll be standing there with my backpack on top of the book drop off thing, usually reading. They’ll look at me, walk right by me, and try to open one of the doors into the library. Locked! Imagine that. If the library was open, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be inside, sitting down and reading, rather than standing there?

At this point, they’ll look at the doors in disgust – “how dare the library be closed when I need to get in?” They’ll turn, look at the sign which lists our hours – yes, indeed, we open at 8AM – and then, they’ll check their watches. And then, they’ll jerk on a few more of the doors as if expecting them to be magically unlocked.

Now, I know that watches can be off, but I don’t think these dozens of folks all have watches that are off by a good 15 minutes. I can come up with two explanations: one is that they either A) think that our signs are lying about our hours; the other, B) is that they think that the hours of operation don’t apply to them.

So, for clarification: No, the signs aren’t lying. We really don’t open until 8AM. And no, glaring at the doors and jerking on them won’t make the library open any faster. Alas, the rules apply to you too. That’s right, glare at me. Yes, now turn and leave the building in digust, when you’d only have to wait a few more minutes to get in. It’s dreadful, I know!

Silly people.