 "Photo: Keenan Doanes")
I'm not at home on a college campus, or at least that's the way I have felt for some time now. My dreams of going to college started when I was a little boy. I have always anticipated the day when I could go off to college and learn everything there was to learn in the world.
I wanted to be like the great thinkers that I read about in the books my grandmother gave me as a child. But throughout my time here, I've learned college can be a very lonely experience for an intellectual. Whenever I encounter "college educated" people, I always wonder how can they be so closed minded. How can they be so uncritical of the world around them? How can they be so unconcerned?
I arrived on Florida A&M's campus with all of the excitement and thirst for knowledge that a student can possibly have, convinced that my peers and professors would share in this love of knowledge and learning; challenging stereotypes and assumptions and championing critical thinking. I was surprised to learn that this would not be the case in most of my classes and that most of my peers could care less.
To many people, college is nothing but a perquisite to obtaining a well paying job. Not for the love of learning.
I sit in class after class hoping that my professors will lead engaging and thoughtful discussions and that my peers will join in; voicing their opinions and trying to understand each other's point of view. But this rarely takes place. It seems both professors and students are rooted in the closed minded mentalities of what they "once knew" or were "once told" and this often comes at the expense of teachable moments in the classroom.
College shouldn't be solely about exams, scores and grades on report cards.
Students should come to college expecting to get a liberal education where their previous views are challenged, so that they may become more knowledgeable and sympathetic towards the world around them.
But in many classes racism, sexism and homophobia are not only ignored, but tolerated and promoted. Instead of challenging students to think critically about these issues professors often times reinforce and reward students who hold intolerant and uncritical views. It's lonely feeling like you are the only student who came to college to learn something. Hopefully many more students will begin to take advantage of the liberal education afforded to them and avoid this fate.
However at this point, I feel alone in this pursuit.
Derrick McMahon is a senior history education student from Frostproof, Fla. He can be reached at famuanopinions@gmail.com.
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