Hello, welcome at this new vlog of Belicons.
Nice that you are watching.
This week my blog and vlog are about students at Universities.
In my blog I was actually surprised about a news report in which they showed that we
can better take notes by hand than by means of a laptop because when we write them down
on paper we will remember them better.
That sounded strange to me, but research seemed to be clear about this.
So next time that I'm taking a course I'll consider taking a pen and a paper with me.
However, after writing my blog I kept thinking about the remark of professor Jeroen Janssen
who said that he didn't want to ban laptops from his classroom for his students are all
adults and thus they should just make their own choices.
Well, that makes sense.
This news report was about University students, so they belong to the people we regard as
the smartest of our societies and they are mostly already about 18 years old when they
first go to a University.
So one could think that they should be able to make responsible choices.
And that this is the way that many people are thinking is not only visible in remarks
as the one of professor Janssen, but also in that students at Universities don't get
as much supervision as younger people do or as people do at a lower level.
In each country the educational system is a bit different, but in The Netherlands college
at a lower level than a University is being called mbo or hbo.
Teachers at those levels often pay attention to whether their students are in class or not.
And if their students are skipping class too often, then at some schools that is reason
enough to tell them to follow that class again next year.
But at Universities they often pay no attention to who is present and who isn't.
These students have the responsibility to be on time and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
in class each day on their own.
But one can wonder whether it is justified to ask this much of these youngsters.
They might be smart, but they are also still often between 18 and 25 years of age.
And this doesn't mean that I'm thinking negatively about youngsters.
On the contrary, I wonder whether adults, like employees of a University, shouldn't
take more responsibility for their students than they are often doing right now.
In order to make up our minds about this it is interesting to take a look at the development of our brains.
What can we really expect of people between the age of 18 and 25 years?
It might be nice to know that our brains continue developing.
Some parts of our brains do decline during our lives and for that reason it becomes harder
and harder to memorize things.
But we can slow down this process of decline by making sure that other parts keep on developing.
For that reason we sometimes even see people who are over 100 years old learning how a computer works.
If they like to do that, it is possible.
So the proverb 'You are never too old to learn' is a truism.
Time and again when you learn something new, your brain develops.
And physically exercise actually also helps to stimulate your brain to keep developing.
Nevertheless, there is a moment at which we can say that our brains are becoming mature
and that happens somewhere between the age of 22 and 25.
So at that age our brains are fully developed and thus we can make responsible choices on our own.
So youngsters actually miss certain connections in their brains which help them to make good choices.
And for that reason we see that adolescents act based on their emotions, they are focused
on the present and above all, they want to discover new things and are willing to take risks.
A child is fully focused on itself but adolescents start to see that they aren't just a person,
but a person in a society and they need to find out how to live in that society.
So they join a group, they start to experiment with all kinds of things and they think about
what feels good right now and not so much about what they should do now in order to
be able to get a degree in a few years.
So with that in mind, let's take another look at University students.
They are mostly about 18 or 19 years old when they first go to a University.
So their brains are further developed than that of, for example, an adolescent of about
14 years old, but they aren't fully mature yet.
And especially new students come in a new environment, that of campus life, and they
need to find out again how to live in that environment.
And at that moment, they still tend to act based on their emotions and to think in the present.
For that reason we regularly hear that new students agree to terrible initiations that
sometimes also have terrible consequences.
If one would ask the same of someone who is about 35 years old, then that person would
probably say: 'do it yourself'.
But for an adolescent it is much harder to say 'no'.
At the same time we do expect of these people that they understand the importance of being
on time and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in class in order to listen to the professor.
And we also expect them to be able to make good plans about doing their homework so that
they can get their degree in time.
So even though their brains are almost mature and even though they are smart, it's still
good when people sometimes tell them: 'you are not allowed to do this'
or: 'this should be finished by then'.
Not in order to punish them, but just because they need that.
Or in other words: if you really love these youngsters, you sometimes need to say 'no'.
These are my ideas.
Let me know what you think, on Belicons or on YouTube.
And don't forget to mention your arguments of course.
I'm really curious and I will see you next week.
Bye!
For more infomation >> Homecoming 2017: University Day of Service - Duration: 1:44. 
For more infomation >> UW tests for lead in university buildings - Duration: 0:27. 
For more infomation >> New Book Features Stories of Latino Students At Harvard University - Duration: 6:08. 
For more infomation >> Hit-and-run car accident closes roads near the University of Arizona - Duration: 1:33. 
For more infomation >> Tour De Fox at Furman University - Duration: 2:35. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét