Is college working for you?

In my experience, most college students cannot handle the question: "Is college working for you?". They view the question as illegitimate. To their ways of thinking, the question should not be asked. Here's why:

1. Lots of college students understand college as workload. They assume they are there to get the work done on time according to the requirements. There's a staggering amount of work to do. The value of college will be realized by completing the workload. They are the ones to do the work that college gives them. To question that is to become too self-absorbed, moody and unreliable.
2. Other college students admit that college is not working for them. Yet they assume there is something wrong with themselves, not with college. They must be misfits in a time honored system that must be right. These students jump to the conclusion that they lack study skills, motivation or the required intellect to succeed. They don't want to talk about "college not working for them" because it makes them look bad.
3. A smaller number of college students own the question. They assume college will work for them by making it work for them, not waiting for it to work. They think they get out of college what they put into it. Whenever college is not working for them, they find ways to make better use of their time, better focus on their tasks, and better priorities between competing obligations. The question "is it working?" is asked continually in order to be responsible about creating successful experiences.

All three ways to dismiss the question "Is college working for you?" assume that learning happens on the outside. They rely on instructors and educational materials to learn. They are taking in learning by doing the work that college assigns.

In this blog, I've explored the opposite assumption: learning happens on the inside. It takes intrinsic motivation and curiosity for authentic learning to occur. Without finding one's own inner direction, working at learning will not last, prove to be useful or translate into valuable practices. The question "Is college working for you?" really asks what works for you and what sparks your imagination, curiosity and self motivation?