Ah, the season's upon us. The air is crisp, and the papers are rolling in - that's right, I'm talking essays, tests, and homework of all shapes, and sizes. As a freelancer, I've come across more than my fair share of college kids looking for someone to do their homework for them, and of course, I turn them down, mostly on principle (also, I can't be arsed to do it).
A recent query was asking me to write a reaction piece to a short poem (either 19th or 20th century, I don't recall), and it infuriated me. First of all, I love poetry, so it seemed like a fun thing to write, in the first place. Second, what are you doing studying literature, if you can't be bothered to write a shitty piece on one single poem? No one's asking you to analyze the stylistic changes from Keats to Kipling, or why T.S. Eliot could sometimes be a snob, or such fine details. This is a basic assignment. And you can't even be bothered to do that.
I mean, I'm all in favor of cheating in school, if it serves, but this is college. You chose to be here. No one's making you. So what the hell are you doing here, if you don't like the subject? And I mean, it's not even a "big" sort of field. Training to be a doctor or a lawyer, despite not liking it, I understand, as those are well-paying, highly respected jobs.
But who ever heard of billionaires out of liberal arts schools? It's all so absurd to me.
And infuriating. Because for one thing, I love learning stuff. I like learning new things from the articles I do get to write. Even if it's on weird topics, even if it's about areas I never guessed I could be interested in. It's who I am. Not to mention topics I actually choose to study. Right now, I'm studying Russian, as well as a few marketing related courses. And I love them. Even if sometimes they're hard, or I don't get it the first time.
To me, this is one of the biggest signs our world is going to shit. Just look at this generation of spoon-fed idiots. Ten years from now, they'll wonder why their own kids are boring, and lackluster, but in order to teach curiosity and inventiveness, you edmust first master them yourself.