Mine Your College Education

May 13, 2008: Your high school years are just about completed, and you are heading off to the college of your choice. Hopefully, you learned something during the four years of your high school "education" - my sarcasm is based upon what I have read and some high school students with whom I've conversed.

Anyhow, that experience will be behind you, and a whole new world of learning possibilities will be opened for you, so let me provide you with a few words of advice. Of course, I could be out of touch with some of the modern day thinking about what a college education should be, but I really don't think so. I had a short experience teaching a few college courses a number of decades ago, and some things never change - in this case, the basic concept of learning.

The advice listed below will always stand you in good stead:

pay attention to what your instructors/professors are teaching

if there are ideas presented, or technical information presented, about which you have trouble understanding, don't be afraid to ask questions

do some additional research/study on subjects in which you are most interested - become active in clubs and other organizations targeted to your career goals

be aware that in many courses of study - particularly those in the social and economic areas, you will be taught by instructors/professors who more than likely have a specific political mind set, so the advice here is the same as the first part of the previous section

Your college life can, and should be, one of the most important segments of your life, so use the time spent in that environment wisely. In particular, if you are living on campus, you will probably become a target of political indoctrination by the various on-campus student organizations. Therefore it is important for you to raise your thinking and intellect level by a few notches, so as to be able to avoid being swept up by emotional arguments.

The course of action upon which you travel will have a determining effect on your future success, so be sure to mine your education for as many gems of information you can, and remember these words from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The things taught in school are not an education but the means of an education."

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