School – the place where humans widen their knowledge. Student – an inseparable part of the school. Without him this institution would be nothing more than only four walls built to attract somebody’s attention. Certainly, everyone of us is aware of the fact there are many kinds of schools. I can mention primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities. As the old saying goes: “There are as many different students, as there are schools”. You can meet grinds there, whose inherent identification signs are: a backpack full of books and hands tired from heaps of papers. During the breaks you can also spot a different group of students. Those students come to school mostly to make the next acquaintance with the blond beauty. There are also students who were forced to go school. They did not have the chance to decide of their future life.
When student graduates from high school, he faces difficulties, the next problematic topics that he will be encounter to the end of his earthly life. One of those, bothering probably every young man, is the question: “ What shall I do next with my life? Will I like my neighbor from behind a fence start a new job at a nearby Mc. Donald, or maybe, like my neighbor on my left, go to college?” Those questions remain very often without any reply. They are too tough nut to crack in the eyes of terrified eighteen years old person. At this difficult moment in their lives, the immediate help approaches: parents, dear, kind-hearted parents. As always they are on the spot, as always ready to reach out and give a helpful hand. It is up to them what will happen to their beloved daughter, or adored “Brian” in the future. During many tumultuous nights they will be trying to convince their offspring not to “waste the chance of a lifetime” and go to a famous university or a nearby college.
The first group I would like to write about is the group of victims, the gray “creatures” worthy repenting in the eyes of many of us. For them the suit is an insignificant thing. Getting up every day they put on the same raggedy jeans, the same blue shirt, which they got on their sixteenth birthday from their grandmother. There are students in above group, who still rely on their moms to choose the clothing they wear. Those students are still beloved “bears” but in the bodies of grown-up men. Asking about the most sheltered reverie they give no answer. Those students are too afraid. They are used to the painful truth that they do not have any rights to dream. But on the other hand, like every one of us, they do have their hidden desires. They want to tear out from the claws of “beloved” parents as soon as possible. They want to, as every grown –up human being, start living according to their own inner principles. As a rule those students attend lectures regularly. They do not have courage to object to their parents’ commands. Ditching classes in the eyes of a frightened teenager would be like stealing the precious jewel: too dangerous to undertake this challenge. Asked about the most frequent topic of their conversations, they are simply silent. Why? They do not have anybody to talk to. Those students run away from everyone, run away from reality. It happens that this group of “solitary students” meets in the “noiseless” places of the school to spend hours reflecting upon their monotonous existence. The selection of next classes is unimportant for them. They do not have a right to decide. Living in a continuous conflict with their own ego, they listen to subsequent orders of their “beloved” parents. They listen to them also when it comes to choosing all their classes for the following semester. The most admire person all over the world is president Lincoln or general Colin Powell. Those people devoted all their lives to fighting for personal freedom. Those people are unparalleled examples in the eyes of students belong to the group of victims. The above heroes had courage not only to fight for their own rights but also for those of millions of other people. They were not afraid of loudly expressing their own opinions in spite of the fact that they themselves were criticized and disapproved of very frequently. People like president Lincoln or general Powell are almost like gods. They become the example to imitate by young and indecisive students. In the course of time those students lose what is the most significant component of learning: the pleasure of gaining the knowledge and the desire for widens their horizons. Instead of this, they become gloomy thinkers, who you can meet in the forgotten corners of every corridor. They cannot enter meaningful relationships, because they do not fell as part of the institution, their own school. Students creating this “phenomenon” finish their education with poor scores and without any smiles on their faces. Why? Because they did not have the opportunity to decide about their lives. They did not have any chance to be a helmsman of their own destiny.
The next group of students, as far as their purpose for attending schools, is more optimistic. The students that belong to this group are “good students” who had the opportunity to decide about their education. You can meet this kind of students dressed in gray gym suits, jeans or elegant suits. There are also “good students” whose inseparable attaché of clothes are cowboy boots, a hat and a bandana on their necks like John Wayne. Those students never miss classes. It would be a sin for them. Being absent is equal to a sleepless night because of remorse. Missing even a single hour destroys an eternal opinion of being the best student at school. The desire for gaining new knowledge is stronger than friends’ persuasions of some day excursion on the lake on Monday morning. Topics of chats of “perfect students” are physical events, mathematical phenomena, and scientific figures. There is one unwritten rule: “ Let’s talk about everything as long as it is connected with science”. The conversation does not stick together when it is about the new blond beauty with the shapeliest legs at school. When the object is a new discovery in biophysics or the influence of moon’s phases on the moods of ants, the conversation becomes a three-hour debate. Those students have known what they wanted to achieve during their lives since their birthday. They attend school because they want to. Being the inseparable part of the school is their own free will. Thank God, most of the students are members of this kind of the group. The destiny of their homeland will be in their hands. Those students broaden the knowledge not because they have to, but because it is a positive stimulus. Getting up every morning, no matter if it is nine or six o’clock, they enter school’s thresholds. Those students are aware of how much they are able to achieve by their own strength. As students, they not only do what is their obligation, but also much more. They conduct campaigns organize by their schools. Looking at them we can see people who follow an aim, desperate, thirsty for power, which in their eyes is the knowledge. To them studying for three tests during one day, or read “The Animal Farm” written by Orwell, is not a big problem. Those students “devour books” like the vitamin c, with a smile on the face. Every next mathematical principle, every next physical rule opens new perspectives concerning the surrounding world. Those “good students” leave school with the thought that they have learned something new. Asking about Matejko or Byron, their lips are not sealed, because they know exactly who the question is about. Those students are the best example that school does not have to be the place that frightens away. But like a magnet draws them closer. Those students will attain their objectives. Why? Because they had the opportunity to derive pleasure from the science, they had the opportunity to attend school because of their own will. Asking about the authority they mention: Einstein, Plato or Newton. Their figures are visible on walls of their rooms and over their beds. But also the same figures exist in subconscious minds of every “good student”.
The last group I would like to describe I named “Generation X”. Asking what they want to do with their future live they simply answer that they do not know. The only motive for the drab existence is a next party or new-opened discotheque downtown. Their purpose is being the famous playboy at school. Their dream is being a movie star at the sight of whom teenagers’ hearts beat to the rhythm of cha-cha. They spend every free moment in renowned shops. They waste hundreds of dollars buying “cool” jeans and suits designed by Calvin Klein or Versache’s team. The craving for being best dressed becomes their obsession. The most important rule is “the tighter the better”. Countless hours spent in the gym to build bigger muscles cannot be in vein. Every bicep has to be visible. That is the point. Students that belong to this group rarely attend lectures. Their desks are usually empty. They wait for their “masters” for nothing. They prefer nice chats with the sexy blonde rather than a boring psychology class. Most of these students do not have the slightest idea of what classes exist on their schedules. When questioned about other courses they are going to take next semester, they simply answer: “ Those which are the easiest to pass”. If a topic of one of English projects is a question about who is their authority, these students name John Travolta from the movie “ The Saturday Night Fever”. It is not surprised. This man and similar to him fulfill all of students’ expectations. He is not only a good-looking macho man but also a brilliant dancer with at least four girls around him. Students from the “Generation X” do not treat school like a kind of institution of higher learning. For them school is like their former playground where they could meet familiar faces. They do not care about good grades. They pay more attention to spending time in some new and interesting way. They pass hours in the cafeteria playing the fifteenth game of poker. As far as they are concerned there is no advantage to working on the experiment to show the results of the particles’ gravitation. More interesting is the question how they can get B or D from the English course.
The division of students as far as their purpose for attending school could be incomprehensible to many people. Being one of the undergraduates I hardly believe that this partition exists at every American university, or at the universities in other countries. The motives for attending school depend on us, on our interests, and on our personality. Human beings are creatures thirsty to discover what is unknown and mysterious. Every one of us is aware of the fact that there are as many motives for attending school as many various students. They are knowledge lovers, discoverers, but also simple human beings, who would not know what to do with their life if there was no place like school.
At this moment I would like to use a personification. Students are like a river. Some of her sectors are deep and wide. Those are “the good students”, who attend school because they want to. Those learners could set the pattern for others. But the same river has also tributaries. Those are narrower, weaker, and less visible. I compared those parts of the river to “the victims’ group”. They did not have the choice; they succumbed to the laws of nature, the law of survival. You can also see places where the same river chances her course. The good example of this phenomenon in our world is “the cool group, the group of Generation X”. They do not care what will happen next. They just want to live with the conscious hope that something will happen. Whether they will turn right or left does not matter to them.
The division of students at Universities all over the world
