http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/04/fun_in_college_campus_weirdness_is_gone_replaced_by_binge_drinking.html
This certainly doesn't describe my college experience. Then again, I didn't have helicopter parents, and maybe need to start accepting that I'm not the same generation as college kids. Interesting read though. I wonder if this phenomenon (if true) is part of why the Barefoot Monkeys are so immensely huge these days; students desire playtime but need someone to show them how.
Cool article, and I wholeheartedly agree with what it's saying. It's actually difficult to find people my age who know how to make their own fun that doesn't have to involve spending $60 at a bar (this part of why I like the 10Ben crew, by the way).
ReplyDeleteI don't even think we can blame it directly on parents; I didn't have helicopter parents either, but have certainly felt a lot of the pressures this article mentions in the form of kid-gloved administrative policies. In a nation where you can sue when your coffee is too hot, college administrators may respond to the threat of powerful helicopter parents by increasing structure and accountability for time. UMass Amherst just banned (or at least placed a hold on) EDM performances because of EDM's association with MDMA, for example, which I'm sure was influenced by worries about parental concerns.
And as we've seen, these reactive responses also create dangerous environments--environments in which ACTUAL human problems (e.g. sexual assault) are swept under the rug to avoid bad publicity and short-term litigation problems... which of course results in really bad publicity and long-term litigation problems, but you know.
...and then there's the economy. We now refer to "college careers" like college is practice for a job, or a place where people go to do a job (earn good grades) which is utterly ridiculous. If anyone ever wants to hear me give The Abbreviated History of American Fraternities lecture, just say the word; as student-owned spaces, Greeks have historically done quite a lot to disrupt this mentality and to establish safe areas for extra-curricular / character development.