The Student's Burden
James Kunen, while a student at Columbia University, described about as succinctly as anyone a basic conflict tearing a t the souls of college students today when he wrote in "The Strawberry Statement": My friends and I became preoccupied with the common nostalgic assertion that 'these are the best years of your lives'. We could accept the fact that the college years are exhausting, confusing, boring, troubled, frustrated and meaningless-that we could take in stride; we'd seen hard times before. But that everything subsequent would be worse was a concept difficult to grasp and, once grasped, impossible to accept.
This conflict and the hostilitv it has bred are not difficult to understand, especially when viewed through the eves and in lieht of the exoerience of vouth in their late teens just on the verge of embarking on a career. And, if this were the only source of serious conflict for our young people, it might not he too burdensome for them to live with. Unfortunately, it is interwoven with so many other assaults on the individual psyche that those working closely with college students and their problems believe the situation can he understood best if we assume that "our culture is a t war and our young people are on the front lines." of Sensation." Norton. (See: Herbert Hendin. "The Aee " New York, 1975). Parents. unwittinelv -. in most cases and unable to do otherwise in others, compound the problems of the college student hv oassine on to him what thev dislike most about themseivks andvtheir lives, and by expecting the student to he or to do things - he mav not he able or mav not want to he or to do. Thus alienated from his parents and terrorized of the future, the student's hostility leads to rage and to distrust of himself and others. Life is viewed as a maze of pain, distress, and limitless vulnerability. He can see himself as a humilated loser if he fails or a murderous aggressor if he succeeds. Still he struggles to find a posture that will enable him to survive on his own. What he chooses is something that permits him to flee emotion and to hide pain, rage, and his deepest feelings. In dealing" with others he follows a new Golden Rule: The shortest route to disaster is to become emotionally involved. Hence his relations with others become more casual and skeptical, often exploitive of the other individual and sometimes inhumanely detached. He may seek salvation by trying one far-out experience after another; he may assume a life-stvle in which each experience is totallv ordered and controllkd; he may affect a numbness akin tocatatonia. His ideal may he another youth who appears to he emotionfree, controlled, imprenetrahle, invulnerable, and who shows maximum detachment from feeling. If the "he" is a "she" there is the added problem of being accepted as a person in her own right and of protecting herself from exploitation. Analysts tell us this leads all too many young women to feel they have no right to feel or to he seen if they are not successful. As if all these hostilities and hang-ups were not enough for students, matters are exacerbated even further by worry over finding a job or, more precisely, a place for themselves. that offers them a chance to use their abilities and to find some measure of satisfaction. Most serious students are all too familiar with the realitv of limited . ioh OD. portunities for college graduates and with the hleek projec-
speaking tions for the future. They know, for example, that one of ten students seeking a job after graduation from college in 1975 was unable to find one at a level and offering opportunities and compensation commensurate with his training and expectations. They know there is projected a 140,000 surplus of college graduates by 1980, and that by 1985 there may he as many as 2 to 2.5 college graduates competing for every choice job. What they may not know is that according to the Department of Labor there will he about 18 million openings for high-status johs between 1972 and 1985, but that there may he as many as 22 million with college degrees competing for these johs. (They also may not know that there is more than a little justified optimism that the labor market can and will make complex adjustments to enable demand for college graduates to meet supply. Nor can they appreciate or anticipate the effect of the great efforts now underway in hoth the government and private sectors to create more and more interesting johs.) And so it is that students, burdened by all these cares and struggling against all these obstacles enroll in our courses-and we proceed to tell them about the wonderful world of chemistry. This is entirely appropriate, of course, for it is precisely why we and they are together. Also, having some sense of the students' mental and emotional disposition might enable us to fashion our presentations so they will have the greatest chance of stimulating interest and learning. In the process perhaps we will be fortunate enough to make life a little brighter and a little more interesting for our charges. Toward this end, we might remind them of some hasic notions and experiences that many successful professionals have found especially useful in their lives. One of these is that learning can he a vehicle for increasing one's pride and pleasure in himself, as well as a mechanism for developing his talents and providing new avenues for personal growth. Most professionals get so much enjoyment and reward from learning that they have made it an indispensable part of their work and private lives. For some, the ability and opportunity to learn and hence to grow is the ultimate reward and the most cherished of possessions. I t offers hoth a private haven for self-healing and self-renewal, and an invaluable resource for maintaining effective contact with reality and with others. I t is never without novelty or challenge, and it is readily accessible to all, not just those with high IQs. A second helpful notion is that formal education can provide an opportunity for the individual to learn how to learn on his own, how to enjoy his work and how to find satisfaction in personal growth and development. If students would stop competing with one another and would start looking at each course as a body of knowledge to master and at exams as indicators of how well thev have mastered that knowledge, they would he taking the fjrst steps toward learning how to learn and how to find satisfaction in personal A third notion that students and a good many others might he encouraged to reflect on has heen with us since well before John Donne put it so forcefully in 1624: "No man is an island, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main . . . . Any man's death [or pain or misfortune] diminishes me . . ." All of us must learn to care more about others, and to worry a little less about ourselves. WTL Volume 53, Number 2. February 1976 / 09
