What’s wrong with university
I picked up Jeff Rybak’s new book What’s wrong with University to read during the several flights this month. I discovered his blog on Macleans.ca and was rather impressed, so I thought I’d give his book a shot. I’m barely into it, but I like it so far. Rybak is a recent U of T grad so the book should also be a good read for your university-bound teens. There’s a great summary of it here which makes reference to another book I get the feeling I should read soon, Jim Côté and Anton Allahar’s Ivory Tower Blues. (The latter is from the perspective of the faculty while Rybak’s book is from a student’s perspective.)
We could go on all day debating whether university has changed too much with the times and lost its academic orientation, or whether it’s not hip enough and ceases to be relevant to today’s youth. Both can be easily argued . . . and therein lies the biggest problem: because “everyone goes to university” we have all kinds of diverse students, with diverse goals and expectations all trying to get different things out of the same institution. Rybak describes five different motivations for attending university (all from a Canadian-Ontarian perspective, so it’s great not to have to mentally translate from the word “college”) and asks the key question: what makes us think that one university system can satisfy all of those different needs?
As your child prepares for university, I’d encourage you to focus on the motivation behind this goal. It could be one of Rybak’s five, a combination of one or more, or something entirely different. But, knowing your own motivations, your children’s motivations and the motivations of the people with whom your child is likely to attend will help you gain a broader perspective of the Ontario university scene and help you prepare for your child’s own experiences. This ain’t your parents’ university! 
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader. If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out "starter kit" of articles. Then, click on the pages, posts or categories on the right that interest you for much more information about home school university admissions in Ontario and Canada.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment