Keep College Uncomfortable
In all honesty, I sailed through school until college. I
understood things and got great grades with very, very minimal effort. The
initial pain came from Intro to Ethics my first semester. I didn’t understand
how college could be so different, but it was. I didn’t know how to study
because I only studied a little bit in my last two years of high school, and basically none before that.
Intro to Ethics taught me to explain my thoughts by using
various philosophers’ ethical systems. I hated the class, but realize it did
good things for me. We had to read, talk, and write about uncomfortable
scenarios three days a week for 14 weeks.
When I first started college, I only had a vague idea of
what major I wanted. So, I spent two years taking general education and exploratory
courses. In my second semester, I took three weeks of biology. It only lasted
three weeks because I couldn’t stand feeling dumb and crying because nothing
made sense.
Now, in my fourth year of college, I’m taking Biology in
Your World. Much to my pleasure, just about everything makes sense! I’m now
able to relate biological concepts to agriculture, and that makes all the
difference.
In this week’s biology lab, the teaching assistant was
winding down class, going over our reflection questions. The last three
questions related to a woman who wants to be a mother, but may carry
Huntington's disease. We had to answer if we thought she should get tested for
the diseased allele, and if we thought she should have a baby or not.
The TA dismissed class before even reading the questions aloud,
which she had done with all the others. Her exact reasoning was because the
topic was too uncomfortable, and she didn’t want to make students
uncomfortable.
Do we not want to talk about uncomfortable things?
College should shape wannabe adults into real adults. I’m
sure some students had a solid answer with informed reasoning, and some didn’t
care and were uninformed. We’ll never know.
Most classes encourage mature discussion mediated by the
professor, but this class failed. Our opinions and positions will remain static
if there’s no input. If we know a profound truth but never have the opportunity
to say it, everyone around us loses. We can’t become “real adults” without
uncomfortable conversations about real issues.
Let’s have an uncomfortable conversation sometime. Let’s
learn. Let’s grow.
Hello Britta. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am glad to stop by your profile on the blogger and the blog post and know about you being the follower of Christ. I am glad to go through your post and know about your college experience. I am truly blessed and feel privileged and honored to get connected with you as well as know you through your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I love getting connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged, strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 37 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would loce to have you come to Mumbai with your friends to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing experience. Looking forward to hear from you very soon. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar WAnkhede. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends.
ReplyDelete