It isn't hard to be imperfect. It comes naturally to us all. We may seem perfect in some small area for some short time but that is about it. However, to allow for ourselves to be consciously imperfect and to be comfortable with that state takes courage. Or maybe I should write "faith" - it takes faith that you and the world will be all right regardless of your shortcomings and errors.
We listened to a counselor at a college with about 10,000 students. He sees about 10% of the student body but I guess that a larger portion could benefit from a conversation or two with a professional counselor, one who is aware of the typical problems that students at his college have. Two thirds of the students he sees are women, which goes along with a strong sex difference I have seen supported by research: women are much more likely to seek help in all circumstances than men are.
What we heard was that many students are not prepared academically for college as indicated by their college readiness scores on standardized tests. Many incur heavy debt without fully understanding all the rules and possibilities that come with their debt. Our speaker emphasized that many of the students he sees are quite afraid of being average and it seems to his clients that this is an especially poor time to be average. Therefore, students often carry the idea that they need to be perfect, especially in connection with their grades. He tries to tell them that no employer is going to call them to account for that grade of B- they got in their freshman year in world lit.
Americans are already known for exaggerated ideas on the importance of being #1. We seem to have a national tendency to think that there is No.1 and there is everybody else and all that counts is winning, being first, being at the top. Such thinking is clearly a sign of a poor education, along with perhaps being a sign of immature thinking.
Our speaker mentioned that a certain poster hung in several dorm rooms when he himself was a college student. I just tried to find that poster and typed "justifica" into Google images and the first suggestion was "justification for higher education poster." The poster shows a big fancy house with a big fancy garage of many sports cars across a lovely wide green lawn.
I hope our students find much better reasons to have a higher education and the courage to be imperfect in their pursuit of knowledge, in their grades and in their bank accounts.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
