Becoming a Learner: Realizing the Opportunity of Education

“You are not in college to become an employee.”

This quote goes hand-in-hand with the above one, reinforcing the fact that education and work are not synonyms. College is not job training or even remotely similar to a technical school for advanced jobs; it’s a resource for becoming an adept learner. 

“The words and stories you use to describe and make sense of college will either orient you toward taking advantage of your opportunities or they will work against you by obscuring the most important outcomes of higher education.” 

An important theme in the essay is the power and importance of positive affirmation. The way one views and discusses education has a direct impact on how one goes about obtaining an education.

“(1) Your degree doesn't guarantee you a good job. (2) You are going to forget much of what you learn. (3) Many of the job skills you learn in college will become obsolete.”

The above passage notes three realities of a college education that every student must learn to deal. The outlook of being a learner, as outlined in the essay, is tantamount to understanding what college is, its purpose, and how best to take advantage of the opportunity.

“Upon graduation your biggest asset is your potential and your ability to learn, not your expertise.” 

This quote reiterates the fact that college is not about acquiring specific job skills. The most important thing one gains from college, or should gain, is the ability to be a learner. Even after college, a learner continues to pursue knowledge, making them an asset to potential employers who value mental acuity. 

“To be a problem solver, you need to learn how to think critically––a quality that many people consider to be the primary purpose and most important outcome of a college education.” 

Here, the author highlights the most important things that a student should gain from their college education: critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Sanders introduces the key components of a learner in this passage. 

“When you understand that the primary purpose of college is to become a learner, you see learning in a new light. Now it's no longer only about what happens in the classroom. Instead, learning becomes something that you're doing all the time. It never stops.”

The idea that learning is a state of being and that it never stops is critical in the author's argument about the purpose of obtaining a higher education. The desire and ability to constantly view experiences as learning opportunities is an asset not only for one's college years but will also be important in one's career. The world is ever-shifting and changing and one must be flexible and able to develop along with those changes.

“You increase and expand your successes because you do not wait for someone else to make your education better. You take responsibility for who you are becoming.” 

An important aspect of becoming a learner is taking personal responsibility for one's education and to be proactive, rather than passive. This is important when dealing with the classroom setting. A responsible learner asks questions, seeks feedback, and interacts with the professor. The responsible learner also does not cheat or take short cuts with assignments, because such behavior only limits the opportunity to gain experience and learn.

“Although we know that college graduates generally find higher paying jobs and have a lower rate of unemployment, it's important to remember what I explained before: Do not mistake a college education for job training.”

The notion that college is not about job training appears in many areas throughout the essay. The author makes sure to point out that what gives college graduates higher-paying jobs and better chances at employment has nothing to do with any job-specific skillset acquired through a college degree. Rather, it is the set of skills of being a learner that makes a college graduate competitive in the job market.

“In a job interview, it's not your diploma that does the talking.” 

Any graduate needs to remember that the actual diploma plays only a small part in obtaining gainful employment or even a dream job. Many of the social skills and communicative skills developed in college can be more important than what students learns through their majors.

“The problem is that when we assume there is a real world, we are also assuming there is a fake world.” 

Too often people assume that the only thing that matters is what happens after college. This type of thinking posits that most of what transpires on campus and in the classroom is somehow unimportant and unreal. The author points out that this type of thinking inhibits learning and places focus on a future date when one should be learning and experiencing as much as possible during one's college years.

“Fear paralyzes learning, causing us to get so caught up in always knowing the right answers that we try to avoid the challenges that make learning exciting and worthwhile.”

Many students fear asking dumb questions or giving the wrong answer, forgetting that if they already knew everything, then there would be little need for an education. A learner, on the other hand, realizes that asking questions and making mistakes is an important aspect in the learning process, and thus, they do not shrink away from the challenge.

“Learning how to learn requires understanding that it's okay that you don't know all the answers.”

The importance of this truth bears repeating. Learning means that something his unknown. A student cannot and should not know all the answers. Learning is a process. A learner is incomplete, realizing that they do not know everything, and thus, there is always something to learn. Admitting ignorance is an important aspect of becoming a learner.

“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.”

In order to create, one must be willing to step outside the general conventions. This necessitates making mistakes because learning is a process that is not perfect, nor does it create perfect results on the first try. Original thought means not parroting the ideas of others.