Tech students just not breaking the mold anymore

Tech students just not breaking the mold anymore

Holland Alday
Copy Editor
ATLANTA
November 6, 1998

Are Georgia Tech students getting educations or learning job skills during their careers here? We need to examine this distinction and so something to enrich our existances.

Hey. I've got a question for you to ask yourself - one you might have asked yourself before, maybe about four o'clock in the morning while pulling yet another all-nighter: What am I doing here?

That's right - what are you doing here, at Tech, taking classes, reading this paper? Ask your average Tech student this question, and I've found that you usually get the following answer: "So I can get a good job when I graduate."

Which is a pretty good answer, I must admit, and the one I probably would respond with had I not been asked another pointed question about a year ago: "Are you here for an education or are you here for job training?"

The question came from a guest lecturer in a biology class, and it forced me not only to consciously differentiate between the two, but also to ask myself which I was pursuing. The answers I came up with have led me in interesting directions, so I thought I'd pose the same question to you and hope that you might start to ask questions about why you're here as well.

Although part of our task during our time here at Tech is to prepare ourselves for whatever we have planned in our respective futures, I think we should be doing more than just learning how to do whatever job we see ourselves doing in five years. After all, anyone can be trained to do a specific job well. Take insects, for example - most of them spend their entire lives completely absorbed in one or two little tasks, incapable of considering anything outside them. Granted, they do what they do well, but that's about all you can say for them.

So, how does this tie in to the previous question of our existence at Tech? I guess the point of all this is that the four or five years we spend here should used to learn more than just "how to be an engineer" or whatever you happen to be studying.

In short, get out. Do strange and novel things just because they're different. Don't be a bug, despite the fact that there seems to be forces at Tech that seem to be dedicated to turning out legions of bugs. In all fairness, there are a great number of people on this campus who are working to help students broaden their horizons. However, I feel that there are a number of obstacles that seem to

For example, it doesn't help when the College of Engineering decides to practically ax free electives from its degree programs under semesters. That's right - in case you haven't heard, you will probably have somewhere between zero and six hours of free electives under semesters if you are in engineering. I guess someone decided that students really didn't need to take any classes outside their majors.

What's really unfortunate here is that the opportunity to reexamine curricula and ask the question "what does someone really need to know in order to graduate with this degree?" was missed. Instead of being critically examined, it seems that some quarter curricula were simply transposed into semesters. Obviously, something had to give, and that something was student's interests.

Sure, those that graduate under semesters will probably know a lot about whatever they major in and they'll probably get a good job because of it, but that's probably going to be about it. Will they have any sort of non-engineering, non-science backgrounds to draw on?

I'd like to think that despite this additional obstacle that's been placed in the way of Tech students, we'll still be able to avail ourselves of opportunities to go beyond the 'typical' Tech curriculum.

However, even more than now, we are going to have to make the effort to do this. So, if I could leave you with a small piece of advice, I'd tell you to get out there. Find something you've never tried before and do it. Take a random elective next quarter. Pick up a language. Study abroad. But whatever you do, get out and do it while you still can.

"I think we should be doing more than just learning how to do whatever job we see ourselves doing in five years. After all, anyone can be trained to do a specific job well."
Holland Alday
Copy Editor

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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