How to Succeed. . .

 

I wish the theory of smiling, engaged undergraduates like these matched reality a little more often.  Still, a guy can dream, right?  This particular photograph comes from a 2011 Faculty Focus piece on the benefits of engaging students.   

During 25+ years of teaching, students have asked frequently, "What do I need to do to get an 'A' in the course?"  Isn't it obvious after reading the syllabus?  Do the work assigned each week, produce thoughtful projects or papers, hit the books, and perform well on any quizzes or exams! 

But I no longer bother with that particular can of worms and have taken a more proactive approach during the 2020-2021 academic year, in which all of my formerly face to face courses have become asynchronous online courses.  

 At the bottom of all weekly email reminders to students, as well as in the headers of all documents shared with them in the weekly online modules created by yours truly using our institution's particular classroom management system, is the following equation, consisting of a dozen "21st century skills," a term coined by theorists behind the teaching and learning approach known as The 60-Year Curriculum:

 

Proactive Engagement 

Self-Awareness

Attention to Detail

Collaboration 

Timely and Frequent Communication 

Careful Planning 

Organization  

Problem-solving

Time Management 

Consistency 

Ownership 

On-time Submission of Assignments and Projects

+                                                                                         

Success in the Course

 

'Intellectual agility' should also be worked in there somehow, since one of the key tenets behind the 60-year curriculum is that to remain employable across a longer working life, people must become better able to pivot, upskill, and reinvent themselves in the rapidly changing world and economy in which we exist as AI and automation increase, some occupations disappear, and new ones emerge.  Please excuse the jargon, but its seems apt here.  Ah, yes.  The continuing commodification of post-secondary education.  Sigh.

In any case, I conclude my weekly email communications with students by noting that cultivation of these habits in their student learning teams now -- teams with whom they complete weekly discussion and reflection assignments as well as three larger projects during the term -- is excellent practice for life in the globalized digital economy of the 21st century in which they will operate after graduation.

The verdict?  So far this academic year, I have not had a student ask the dreaded question that I so loathe.

It also occurs to me, on further reflection, that there is much in the above list that might also apply to life in general.  And were I advising young people in a different capacity, I would add the following nuggets of insight (Or is that hindsight?) to the list of ways to succeed in life: 

1) Lose the entitled attitude; 

2) Stop whining about how everything is so unfair and get on with it.  Real life isn't always fair; 

3) Get over the shockingly callow ideal that you'll become either an overpaid professional athlete, movie star, TV personality, recording artist, or some other kind of so called celebrity.  It's time to get your head out of the clouds, to put it in as polite a way as possible, and get your feet back on solid ground.  As a society, we have become too enamored of the ill-conceived notion that we can, to quote the words coming from too many undergraduates' mouths the last 15-20 years or so, "Live my dream."  Many more people beside the college and university set suffer from this delusion come to think of it.

3) Cultivate curiosity for other people, places, ideas, and things besides that blinking, burping, chirping status symbol that is ever present in your hand.  Who knows?  You just might find a more realistic and rewarding path for your life; 

4) Don't derail your life by getting involved with crime or drugs of any kind (and I include sale or casual use of marijuana and hash in that).  You might think you're too smart to get caught, or for something bad to happen to you.  Sooner or later, it will.  It's simply a matter of time.  To borrow an idea from the Nike sneaker people as well as the late Nancy Reagan, just don't; 

5) Never, ever quit a job that provides a regular paycheck until you have a better one lined up, and then give the customary two-week notice.  Don't burn your bridges.  The world is a small place.  In the meantime, strive to have a good attitude, get there early, stay late, keep your mouth shut, show some initiative and take care of whatever might need doing before you are told, help pick up the slack when and where necessary, avoid petty thievery, and learn everything you can about your current employer's business, product(s), or services.  There is no substitute for work experience that you might be able to parley into ever greater opportunities at some point in the future.

6) Avoid emotional entanglement (and physical involvement) with someone else until you have your own house in order with a clear plan for what you will do with your life and how you'll get there. Far too many young people make this mistake far too early, which leads to difficult situations.  At the very best.  And whatever you do, do not get involved with anyone at work, whether in an office, around a cash register, or the stockroom.  The chances are pretty good that it won't work out the way one or both you would like, and then things become awkward.  But fast.  And that's without even raising the spectre of sexual harassment charges that hangs over just about everything these days.

7) Delay children until marriage or some kind of committed relationship where both parents are going to stick around for longer than it takes for someone to get pregnant.  The elephant in the room if you'll pardon the cliche.  

I bring up this final point not from an ultra-conservative perspective (politically speaking I am somewhere in the middle), or as an affront to anyone, but from fairly circumspect, measured, and clear-eyed observation of society -- as well as undergraduates -- over many years.  Too many people of various ages engage in sexual activity for all of the wrong reasons: because they are lonely, bored, desperate, or bow to social and societal peer pressure.  Too many kids have kids before they are emotionally or financially ready.  I am painting with broad brushstrokes here admittedly, but the degree of intellectual and emotional immaturity among many people in their late teens and 20s in 2021 is staggering with predictable results when they give in to their baser instincts.

It's time for us to get really serious about this point, stop pretending this isn't a problem, and dare to talk about it.  Real life is rarely like the movies.  Fiction is not reality.  Being a parent, when you have planned for it, is hard enough in the best of circumstances.  When both parents are around and gainfully employed,without the added emotional and financial stressors of trying to do it all on one's own.  No doubt about it that unplanned pregnancies derail lives.  More often than not.  Sometimes before the lives of parents and resulting children have even begun in earnest. 

Sadly, real life ain't a warm, fuzzy movie airing on Lifetime, in which everything works out after two harrowing hours, absent fathers see the error of their ways, immature girls and young women magically grow up, decide to keep and raise their babies, large houses on a quiet, leafy streets magically appear without anyone scrimping and saving for quite a long time to raise a down payment, and everyone all lives happily ever after. 

The angry knee-jerk reaction for some who read this, predictably, might be something like, "That's not true!  I know someone who got pregnant in high school, she married her boyfriend, he found a job, and they've had 25 happy years together!"  Well, ok then.  Some people do, of course, get by in similar situations, and still others might even manage reasonably well by their children provided they have adequate income, dependable outside childcare, functional and trustworthy family members nearby who are willing to help out, and no chemical dependencies complicating this rosy picture we have painted for ourselves.  

Too often, however, one or more of these vital conditions are missing from the constellation of stars that need to align in just the right way.  More typically, people have a very difficult time extricating themselves from the metaphorical trench they have excavated around themselves, with post-secondary education to degree completion becoming even more elusive.  With that grim picture in mind, it's smarter to wait on a number of things until a young person has all of his or her personal, educational, and entry-level professional ducks in a row.  

A utopian vision if ever there were one, I realize, but why take yourself out of the game before you have even had a chance to play due to carelessness?  One thing I am certain of after so much work with undergraduates -- at larger institutions, smaller liberal arts colleges, as well as community colleges -- is that very often we create and exacerbate our own problems.  It is rarely someone else's fault.  Sure, their can be outside influences beyond our control, but all too often we tend toward taking a very passive approach to life and solving its problems.  The path of least resistance seems preferable.  But perhaps being more intentional and proactive could go a long way to addressing challenges people face and changing their outcomes?  It's worth more than a passing thought.

Now, before anyone hisser seg opp (as the Norwegian expression goes) and dashes off a nasty comment or email, dripping with outrage and accusing me of this, that, or the other, hold on a second.  Let's slow down a bit.  In no way do I plan to go anywhere near these subjects with my students.  It's not part of my job description or responsibility.  But they are nevertheless ideas that have occurred to me as I have pondered for many years how people might exercise greater personal agency, setting themselves up for greater rates of success in life more effectively in the process.  

There is no arguing that a sizable part of the population here in the U.S. -- white, black, and brown -- suffers from a combination of the sorts of problems I outline in this post.  The seemingly endless discussion of race and class in The United States that came about in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, if not before then, makes this point abundantly clear.  Banging continually on the bully pulpit about improving access to affordable post-secondary education, while a fine ideal, is only a partial solution however.  

Besides book learning, like we encounter in a school or university setting, many people also need help with establishing more positive attitudes, outlooks, behaviors, and habits too before they are dropped into a college classroom and expected to perform at level.  But how in the hell do we do that?  When and where?  As a much loved and admired sociology professor (who was Afro-Caribbean) from 30+ years ago said often during the three courses I took from him, "You cannot legislate attitudes."

I suppose that the best I can do as a parent is to share this kind of hard advice with The Young Master, who is fast approaching the age to start more serious and ongoing discussions about personal agency and how to help himself through life.  It's a gross oversimplification, of course, but he can avoid problems that might plague him throughout life by keeping to the straight and narrow path as much as possible during adolescence and young adulthood.  I'd wager that this might also work for others too and make so called "success" in both education and life more likely.

-- Heinz-Ulrich