2021-04-10, 01:19 PM
Quote:Typoz Wrote: Wrote:My own time at university I was in a science/engineering area of study, which was unexciting. I gained much more benefit from my fellow-students during non-study time, when I was exposed to a wide range of topics including Albert Camus as well as Lyall Watson and much more. Camus led me down a dark path, perhaps something one has to go through in order to emerge into the light at the end. Lyall Watson remains one of my favourite authors, his book Gifts of Unknown Things being quite special for me. Overall, my time at university is something I treasure, not for the academic side, but because it had a transformative effect on me, and included some of the happiest times too. But times have changed, there may be restrictions on free speech these days which were undreamed of except in foreign lands, in my time.
Interesting.
I think studying a topic that is more objective like mathematics or engineering is a way to gain most knowledge without human subjectivity being too influential, but I’m sure it still influences aspects of them. What are the benefit/drawback balance for those paying through the nose for a University education during the past year?
The past year apart, it will be interesting to see if my daughter eventually looks back on her ‘education’ as a whole. From my perspective, and I’ve heard the same from others, the love of school and learning disappeared from her when the big exams started looming. The pressure was on to ‘perform well’. it was the mindset at her school. It was/is seen as a good school, I’m not so sure.
I dropped out of an engineering course at Uni to go flying, as so many of my fellow pilots (at least in South Africa) did. Unusually, my time at Uni was about the hardest that I’ve endured in my life. I was lost, having been told that I could no longer pursue my lifelong dream and in the final few months, very lonely. I missed my parents and the life in Africa. I had never even considered the possibility of doing anything else but flying, from the time we first flew to Zambia.
My wife’s time at Uni was ‘the best’! She has great memories of many happy times, I would say that like you, they are around social events and experiences. That’s why she has encouraged our daughter to go. And I’m not really in disagreement, but I do think the time that having a bit of paper on the wall to prove your value is coming to a close.
How do others see their time at Uni? It might be interesting to start a thread to find out?
Typoz & I were talking about our Uni (or other further education) experiences and I was wondering how they might be seen in retrospect by others.
Any thoughts? Or indeed thoughts about education in general.