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"Learning is supposed to be about falling down and getting up again until you do it right. But, in an academic culture that demands constant achievement, failur

"Learning is supposed to be about falling down and getting up again until you do it right. But, in an academic culture that demands constant achievement, failures seem so perilous that the best and the brightest often spend their young years in terrariums of excellence." In my experience, this couldn't be further from the truth. I'm a current Dartmouth student with an Engineering/Computer Science concentration, and in my hardest classes the curriculum is set up to help you persevere through failure. There are optional TA/Professor office hours for when you fall behind, and if you completely fail at an assignment, most professors allow you to add an explanation to why/where/how you failed, and they'll generously take this into account for the assignment grade. I've read about the benefits of a "growth mindset" many times here on HN, and I couldn't be happier with how Dartmouth encourages this school of thought. I'm not sure if this is universal in the Ivy League, but this part of the article really bothered me because my experience is drastically different.

n1cked 12y ago
I found that quote to be consistent with my experience at UPenn.
jonnathanson 12y ago
The quote very much applied to my experience at Yale (and, just as aptly, to all of my experiences preceding it). But it really depends on the kinds of students you're observing. The students this article talks about are the traditional, career-track types: the future lawyers, consultants, and bankers of the world. The people for whom the phrase "Choose any career you want, so long as it's one of those three" elicits a resigned sigh and a nervous chuckle. Failure is not an option for these kids. Their career paths, and future employers, do not understand, forgive, or tolerate failure. If you're aspiring to those paths, your GPA is your life's destiny. You're always minding your permanent record. Life is a series of hoops to be jumped through and numbers to paint by, and that mindset starts young. As young as junior high for some people, and as young as elementary school for others. You get on the treadmill, and you run. I was on that treadmill for most of my life, and I hopped off in college, to pursue a career in arts and entertainment. I might as well have announced that I was leaving to join a commune in rural Alaska. That's about what my friends and peers thought of my decision (and many still do). There were (and still are) some wonderful ways to lose oneself at Yale, to grow personally, and to take classes for the love of learning. A lot of students are probably there for those reasons. Just as many are there to check the necessary resume boxes and slide onto the right tracks. The pressure is largely self-applied and peer-exacerbated. The school itself doesn't do anything to encourage it, and to its credit, tries to encourage the opposite. But it's too late by the time kids even show up for freshman orientation. They've been minding their careers since they were old enough to read. I don't really blame colleges for this problem, and I find a lot of that blame misplaced. The blame lies somewhere deeper in our culture. Colleges are just catering to the problem; they're not causing it.
turar 12y ago
Beyond what jonnathanson already mentioned, there's also a case of "scholarship" kids, who have to maintain a high GPA to be able to afford going to school. This results in safe class selection and extreme failure avoidance.

n1cked 12y ago

I found that quote to be consistent with my experience at UPenn.

jonnathanson 12y ago

The quote very much applied to my experience at Yale (and, just as aptly, to all of my experiences preceding it). But it really depends on the kinds of students you're observing. The students this article talks about are the traditional, career-track types: the future lawyers, consultants, and bankers of the world. The people for whom the phrase "Choose any career you want, so long as it's one of those three" elicits a resigned sigh and a nervous chuckle. Failure is not an option for these kids. Their career paths, and future employers, do not understand, forgive, or tolerate failure. If you're aspiring to those paths, your GPA is your life's destiny. You're always minding your permanent record. Life is a series of hoops to be jumped through and numbers to paint by, and that mindset starts young. As young as junior high for some people, and as young as elementary school for others. You get on the treadmill, and you run. I was on that treadmill for most of my life, and I hopped off in college, to pursue a career in arts and entertainment. I might as well have announced that I was leaving to join a commune in rural Alaska. That's about what my friends and peers thought of my decision (and many still do). There were (and still are) some wonderful ways to lose oneself at Yale, to grow personally, and to take classes for the love of learning. A lot of students are probably there for those reasons. Just as many are there to check the necessary resume boxes and slide onto the right tracks. The pressure is largely self-applied and peer-exacerbated. The school itself doesn't do anything to encourage it, and to its credit, tries to encourage the opposite. But it's too late by the time kids even show up for freshman orientation. They've been minding their careers since they were old enough to read. I don't really blame colleges for this problem, and I find a lot of that blame misplaced. The blame lies somewhere deeper in our culture. Colleges are just catering to the problem; they're not causing it.

turar 12y ago

Beyond what jonnathanson already mentioned, there's also a case of "scholarship" kids, who have to maintain a high GPA to be able to afford going to school. This results in safe class selection and extreme failure avoidance.