SPOTLIGHT: Apathy
March 12, 2008
Apathy in education
Jolene Hildebrand
Almost every adult in my family is employed in the education system, so I’ve overheard many conversations about students and school. This conversation typically revolves around parents interfering with teachers or administrators for their child’s sake – asking teachers to give higher marks because their child deserved it or refusing to believe their child was guilty of any misconduct. Increasingly, however, the issue of parental interference has expanded beyond grade school and extended to higher education, resulting in students’ apathetic attitude towards their education.
In an online article from CBC News titled “Students uninterested, but still chase marks, says prof,” professor Anton Allahar told CBC Newsworld that “over the past few years, I would say eight to 10 years, my colleagues and I have noted a steady decline in the level of participation, the level of interest and the level of motivation among our students.” He added that this lack of interest is overshadowed by a growing sense of entitlement.
Students in university seem to have grown under the impression that they deserve high marks in school because their parents have decreed it. The decline in motivation parallels students’ expectations of high credentials, resulting in inflation of marks beginning in the lower grades. Universities are being flooded with high marks without any distinction between excellent students and mediocre ones. Allahar responded to the high pressure to perform, saying “what this implies for universities and the future is that you will have people who have very high grades, but who are not up to the job. They’re not able to do the kind of work that is required of them at university.”
An article in USA Today called “Dummy ‘drumbeat’ goes on for U.S. students” examines the increasing gap between students at the height of academic success with the majority who are completely unfamiliar with a core of basic history and literature. In the article, Trevor Packer, who oversees Advanced Placement courses for the College Board, says, “Students are coming in and are being held to a higher standard than they were 10 and 20 years ago.” Yet the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds with high school diplomas has barely budged in nearly 20 years. The data shows that although the top students are exceeding expectations, the remainder are falling further behind.
In the Canadian sphere, a recent decision of the Ministry of Education now makes it optional for high school students to take provincial exams. The entire province of Ontario has dropped this requirement. This step is viewed as an action against the inflation of high grades that no longer reflect students’ aptitude for learning.
On the British Columbia School Counselors’s Association website, one official posted a response defending the decision, citing “the need to improve student achievement” in the face of the pressure to score high marks in specific courses. The official suggested that perhaps it was best to enable students to do their own research into general admission and specific program requirements instead of relying on exams to guarantee acceptance into the program of their choice.
It remains to be seen whether this step will have a positive effect on student’s interest in their education, however it’s clear that students are needing to take responsibility for their own academic success.
From Jason Brandl, TWUSA Business Rep
TWUSA meetings, they are about as exciting as they sound.
Typically the representative assembly is about thirty students whose job it is to be a voice for the remainder of campus. The problem is, how is council supposed to represent the voice of a campus who refuses to speak? It seems as though Trinity students would rather complain about not being heard rather than saying anything that is worth listening to. As TWUSA council recently considered raising student fees, something that has since been decided against, many were concerned that students would be furious with council and demand to know the reasoning behind such an increase. Yet, the first question should be how many students even know how much they are paying in student fees now? If they were asked would students even know what those student fees go toward? (The answer to that by the way are events such as Can-Am, advocacy programs like the Responsibilities of Membership survey, and on services such as this publication.) So, how could students be upset over a ten dollar increase that they do not even notice, nor know what it pays for? In California, students are currently protesting the increasing costs of tuition on their campuses, something that is causing the state government to look into passing legislation to prevent future increases in tuition.
Students there see increases as only a band-aid solution to their school’s financial problems. The ironic thing here is that Trinity Western University itself is facing a tuition increase again next year, and even this has failed to grab the attention of students, so would a ten dollar increase really spark a revolution? Probably not, students are given many opportunities to speak their voices but TWUSA business meetings get a worse turn out than an Ashlee Simpson concert and popcorn and politics discussions in the TWUSA office see more administrators present than students. One wonders what it will take to get students to care. Though it must be admitted that there will always be a final straw (so to speak), it seems that students need quite a few more straws before their interest is sparked.
“By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy - indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self-satisfaction.”
- William Osler
(Canadian Phsycician, 1849-1919)
We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings.”
-Helen Keller
Chapel attendance and spiritual apathy
Jolene Hildebrand
Rob Rhea, involved with the Trinity Western University community for more than a decade, cautions against equating lack of chapel attendance or involvement in campus ministries with spiritual apathy. In a recent interview, the Head of Student Ministries said “are students less concerned about spiritual things? I don’t know if that’s the case… it’s hard to say because the campus has changed a lot.” He added that TWU used to be much smaller and structured in such a way where one knew more about what students were doing from frequently running into them. Rhea also noted the increase of commuters meant more students were involved away from campus. This, he says, is in contrast to a time when “you could have a clear idea just where students were at spiritually because a lot of the times it was equated with what they were involved with on campus.”
So do students care less about spiritual things now? Rhea doesn’t think so. He notes that “given that media, technology… [students] engage in so many different levels of relationships”. Rhea believes that students’ emotional lives have also affected their spirituality. As he points out, “students come to Trinity with more complicated lives than they used to… they’re dealing with depression and anxiety and emotional conditions that have occurred in their lives. I think students carry more of a load now, emotionally, than they used to.”
The increasingly diverse type of students attending Trinity has also changed the landscape of chapel. Rhea commented that university programming needed to reflect the changes, saying “I don’t know if students are busier now… but students have to be convinced this is relevant.” He pointed out that unlike some Christian universities, Trinity offers the option of choosing to attend chapel, and “if that’s the case then you have to make it worth the choosing.”
Perhaps Trinity will need to rearrange the chapel and ministry programs in order to address an increasing shift in student interests. However, one thing seems to remain constant: student’s lives are busier then ever and, as a result, it appears that outward expressions of spirituality take a backseat to other priorities. As Rhea commented, “if there is a plague on this campus it is over-commitment.”
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
- Plato“So much attention is paid
to the aggresssive sins,
such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as
apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.”
- Eleanor RooseveltThe world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
-Albert Einstein
Now you go...
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