"My own performance at university improved tremendously when I went back after working for many years, and I was able to harness a tremendous motivation that I

"My own performance at university improved tremendously when I went back after working for many years, and I was able to harness a tremendous motivation that I just didn't have when I was younger. I was also able to eliminate distractions, focus completely on performing well at school, and over the years had finally learned how to learn (a skill usually not taught at school). As a result I greatly outperformed virtually all the rest of my much younger classmates." I had much the same experience -- after dropping out twice before going on a 7-year hiatus from higher education, when I went back I had purpose. I was also paying my own way and remaining debt-free, so I had a vested financial stake in getting my money's worth. I got one professor forced into early retirement and another barred from teaching undergraduate courses because of unsatisfactory performance (I never hesitated to remind anyone of WHO was paying WHOM), but student apathy and short-cutting (CHEGG-ing homework) were much larger issues than poor professorship. "Finding a sense of direction, becoming effectively self-motivating, seeing academic performance as more important than partying or other outside interests, knowing how to learn, understanding how tough it is as an adult in the "real world" and what a difference having skills and knowledge could make, having a genuine interest in the subject matter, valuing knowledge and learning for their own sake, and many other things that could help students perform academically are things that schools could help students with, but unfortunately usually they don't." Perhaps the idea that students default straight into higher education after completion of secondary education, without first gaining real-world experience and focus, should be reexamined.