Current influences:
- As I’ve recently written, I’m in the flow of the start-of-school mindset right now by virtue of how I’ve chosen to spend my time lately. Luckily my children find me more amusing than embarrassing, and they introduce me to many of their friends; most of whom are students too.
- Financing college for both my children is a sizable effort (one I am quite happy to make), and as you can imagine, I want them to get the most of their collegiate experience. I talk to them about it – a lot.
- I am asked to speak on Managing with Aloha on different school campuses in Hawaii fairly frequently, and it gives me numerous encounters with students who are engaged, and others who, well, are not.
All these things taken together I’ve noticed something. Something which both saddens and alarms me.
Thankfully, there are exceptions, but for too many of them, as far as our school-bound youth is concerned, there is no cool factor connected to learning, at least not the ‘learning’ they do in the school environment. On the contrary, learning has become synonymous with work, and not work of the MWA genre, the ‘work’ of the 4-letter word variety” junk, hard, a bore and yuck.
When I tell college students that I actually get a bit jealous of them, and sometimes wish I could be back in college again alongside them (very true; I say it with complete sincerity) they look at me as if I am totally clueless and in some La La Land where ignorance must be bliss.