Old School Education in a New School World

When I came to college to learn how to be a journalist I have to admit that after a few mind numbing classes about the basics, ethics, and law I wanted to stab myself in the eye with a pencil rather than learn about it…again. Into my sophomore year I almost considered dropping the major for something more useful after being told that I was going to spend ½ my career in the obits section of some small arbitrary newspaper.

I was traumatized by learning the same thing….over….and over….and over again. Com 101, Com 110, Com 250 (I don’t even remember what they stand for) and it didn’t stop there. Ethics, law, law again, ethics again, history, history, history…Class after class after class I was left with the question: Is this education or some strange form of torture? I will say it again: Mind Numbing!

And then I get to my junior year, after serious inner turmoil and completely by a lucky accident I have found myself in a class that is teaching me –hark what’s this? – something useful! Though I am certainly no advocate for Dreamweaver. And there are things that I am lost on when it comes to SoundSlides. And YES I get very frustrated with HTML and all the rest – but at least it is hands on and going to make a difference in my future.

Why is it that I learned about five useful things in four classes? What the hell is the point of that? The pencil? The Xerox Machine? Really Cohen versus California again? From an ethical standpoint, a legal standpoint, some rambling professor’s standpoint…seriously?

And then I have about twenty crucial things being jammed into one class that by the way, only fulfills a requirement by default…ummm what? Okay the class is tiring, and time consuming, and often frustrating to the point of tears for those among us who are technologically below par, but I would rather have a head ache than wonder where my head even is.

I understand that what we learn in those babbling classes is essentially important, even if not all that interesting. But isn’t it more important in our chosen field to expose the up and coming to something that can actually help us? It is my belief that journalism programs needs to be executed like trade schools. Give us two boring ridiculous classes and then, for the love of the written word, please teach us something helpful! Expose us to the field, make internships not only important, but required. Teach us the history in shorter doses that are a) easier to remember and b) less time consuming. If I go into an interview and say “Hey I don’t have a portfolio or any experience at all, but here’s the history of the pencil, papyrus, and the feather quill,” they’re going to look at me like I’m the most ridiculous human being on the planet.

I mean we’re always talking about timeliness right? Well someone please enlighten me: What the hell is timely about the history of an eraser?