At the Huffington Post, some commentators on my post “A Student’s Unlovely View of UC Berkeley” denounced what they called “coddling”:
That’s Berkeley. No coddling.
Berkeley still is a sink or swim place, with no coddling or significant support system. So what? Grow up.
Coddling? Having your nails done, sleeping on a super-soft bed, being served a fancy dessert — that’s coddling. No one needs coddling, true. But what about basic nutrition? Is being served food with enough Vitamin C coddling? I don’t think so.
The student who spoke to me said that UC Berkeley did nothing to help her find out (a) what she was good at and (b) what she enjoyed. That speaks volumes about UC Berkeley, of course. Students need to learn these things about themselves — everyone does. To go through life without learning these things is a tragedy. It is not asking to be coddled to want these things.
To serve up an education that fails to provide these crucial ingredients is just as unfortunate as a parent or an orphanage serving food that fails to provide essential nutrients. The effect in both cases is the same: Development is stunted. If students weren’t forced to go to schools like Berkeley in order to get a good job (”I’m here for the name” the student told me) it would be less unfortunate. But they are.
Some commentators said Berkeley was somehow better for resembling “the real world” where no one holds your hand. Huh? College students are still growing. Growing things need special environments to grow properly.
One commentator said there are ways to learn on your own: “Go to a library, surf the net, watch TV.” True, there are. But UC Berkeley makes it hard for students to do this because classwork is so time-consuming. Not only does the school serve its students bad food, it makes it hard for them to find good food.
“The student who spoke to me said that UC Berkeley did nothing to help her find out (a) what she was good at and (b) what she enjoyed.”
I agree that these are important things for college students to find out, but does any college help students do this, and if so, how?
Any advice that college students receive is complicated by the fact that they’re trying to be fiercely independent, and it’s hard to tell them very much that they’ll listen to.
Does any college help students do this? Yes. Columbia University schedules no classes on Friday so that students can more easily do internships. Many schools have classes that encourage students to do internships and volunteer work. They are often called “fieldwork” classes. I taught a class at Berkeley called “Psychology and the Real World” which did that. At Berkeley such courses are unusual; they are more common at less prestigious schools.