I am now a college freshman, and being here, at college, is one of our societies major rite of passage. Nearly everyone in the work force today has attended college in some way or another. Even if its just for a trade school, or the AA, BA, and then you have those that go for their MFA and PhD. But college is a norm, and by undergoing it, graduating, you pass through the biggest rite of passage in America that marks you as an adult.
With this, starting your collegiate career, comes many other smaller rites of passage. In my sociology class last Friday my professor pointed out that college is a separate community. Things here, or on any campus for that matter are different then they are in the "real world". Drugs, drinking, sex, all of them are easily available and to an extent "causal" here, they are part of the norm. Professors may see academia as the main point of college, for students its different, their social life here is critical to their experiences, both now and later. Now before I go further please note that the things I will mention as examples are not necessarily things I have seen on my campus, they are generalizations based off my studies and discussions with fellow students.
First example of how different the college community is from the world. Puke on the sidewalk, in so called "normal" life its disgusting, unnerving and we are all hoping that someone will clean it up or the rain will wash it away quickly. Its not right. Yet put that same slice of sidewalk on a college campus and it fits. It is assumed that perhaps there was some frat party the night before, the puke, which other wise would have upset us, is merely something to laugh at as the foolishness of a college student too foolish to know their own limits. The laws and rules are completely different, especially the ones applied within the society that is found here. *Here being of course, a general term.
During rites of passage there is a time of identity crisis. After all you are coming from one..pond lets say, with a set "school of fish", your friends, enemies, and etc. Displaced, the social construction of identity is challenged because the way you have defined yourself in the past is challenged because the people who were your "mirrors" before are gone and you must re learn who you are with a new peer group. The transition period, a simplified way of thinking of this would be freshman orientation, you bond with these people and they become your new peer group. And from that comes your new sense of self to an extent. Because when we are interacting with others they are our mirrors that provide us feedback. The rites of passage that we undergo with these people are part of what makes us who we are, and forms our opinions of the world.
That understood and now aside.
Most of our political issues now are also social issues, following the social construction of identity and the understanding that college is a sort of "make or break it" time period. Shouldn't we be focusing on encouraging a sort of "liberal arts" education in every college. Not liberal arts in the sense that the colleges are, but in the sense that you learn a little about a lot of things, and as you are taught you are also shown the way everything interconnects. My understanding of the current politics has deepened and improved since I have begun to pay attention with the different classes I am taking in mind.
My sociology class works with the ideas being discussed in Early British Lit, International Relations and Modern World Literature work off each other as well. I just spent my last weekend writing a paper about how a story about Kafka can be used as an allegory to consider both world wars and now am working on one about how Heart of Darkness can fit into our issues with Iraq. HoD was written as a commentary upon British Imperialism, but history really does repeat itself, philosophy teaches us to think, sociology makes us think about social things, and international relations brings to light the fact that there is really no government globally and our world is actually in anarchy. To be informed voters we have to think beyond just ourselves, but think for ourselves as well. If that makes any sense. So learn a little about a lot, and make it personally relevant some how so it sticks. College is where it all begins, I'm a firm believer in that, have been most of my life since two of my aunts are professors; but now as a college student even more so. Where is our future? In our colleges.....
