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Stupidity
These lessons have been coaching and mentoring for college
success. Even lesson 10 on failure is
learning how to ‘fail forward’. Today’s
lesson is about stupidity.
Scenario 1: Lexi (or
any student really) is off to college.
She is away from home and away from her parents. She can set her own hours; she has a lot of
freedom to explore life that she didn’t have at home. Early in her first semester, some friends
invited her to a party. There was an
abundance of alcohol and Lexi got drunk.
She also found friendship. Since
then two or three times a week Lexi binge drinks – she is drunk at least two
nights a week. She is studying less and
is drinking more. Lexi is being stupid
and her actions can lead to less studying, poor grades and not reaching her
goals.
Scenario 2: Charles
(modelled after a previous student of mine named Charles) was an average
student in high school. In college he is
enjoying his computer classes and math classes, but hates his English class and
those other general education classes.
He finds a part time job for a computer company – it pays well. Charles is also concerned about money. His parents divorced when he was eleven and
money for college is an issue. He
doesn’t want to borrow for college. The
part time job pays well. His boss likes
his computer work and offers him half-time work or 20 hours a week. It pays fairly good for half-time. He will have enjoy having money saved for
second semester if he keeps this up. But,
with twenty hours a week, something has to go, so he drops his English
class. Weekends are spent catching up on
his computer courses and his calculus class.
After mid semester he finds that his calculus grade is a B minus. He knows he could do better, but he has to
keep working. He drops the calculus
class on the last day to withdraw from a class.
For spring semester, he registers for calculus and English and again
drops them. After his first year in
college, he has completed eighteen credits.
He decides it is not worth it and takes a full time computing position.
He is abandoning his goals.
Scenario 3: Daniel
also finds he likes to party in college.
At one party, a friend gives him some marijuana. Soon Daniel is smoking pot frequently and
lately has started using cocaine. He
enjoys getting high. His classes also
are suffering and his bank account is going down quickly. He finds he can sell some marijuana and
cocaine to raise the money he wants and needs for more partying. He is abandoning his goals.
Scenario 4: Kasey has joined a sorority and is doing
well. Her grades are very good as the
sorority requires study hours and there are older girls who mentor her in her
classes. She likes the social events
that the sorority sponsors and soon has a boyfriend and soon she finds out she
is pregnant. She is on the verge of
abandoning her goals.
No one comes to college with a goal of living under a bridge
by the time they are 30 with a paper bag holding a bottle of wine – but it
happens.
No one comes to college with the goal of getting married and
divorced three times before he/she reaches 40 – but it happens.
No one comes to college with the goal of becoming an alcoholic,
or drug addict, or a sex slave or a college dropout – but it happens.
It is stupidity. DON’T
GET TRAPPED!!!
Assignment:
Research and write a two paragraph paper in your journal on
why students drop out of college. While
poor grades might be the ultimate factor, dig deeper and find the underlying
factors.
What temptations might you expect in college? How might you avoid them?
What are your thoughts on college life – and the very real
ease of getting alcohol? Is social
drinking okay with you?
How do you learn to say “NO”?
Today’s quote – from the Christian prayer Lord’s Prayer also
known as the Our Father – “And lead us not into temptation.
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