đ¨đ˝âđŤThe Art of (College) Exploration
Some colleges ease up on pushing undergrads into picking majors right away - The Washington Post
In this piece, journalist Jon Marcus interviewed us about the college and career navigation crisis that is the focus of our research and practice. A burning question is: how do you make college worth it? The stakes feel overwhelming when youâre paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in hopes it will lead to gainful employment at the end of four years. Itâs no wonder that students often feel like they have to forgo passion/purpose and just be âpracticalâ and get a âgood job.â Many colleges are buying into the same idea by making students choose majors immediately, eschewing purposeful exploration so that no time is wasted.Â
Is this strategy effective?
Not so much. Forcing students to make a hasty choice doesnât mean itâs the right choice for them. In a study of students in three countries, those in England and Wales had to choose their majors before starting school, while those in Scotland explored multiple majors in their first two years of college before deciding on one. The Scottish graduates were more likely to enter careers that they found purposeful. David Epstein likened this to dating and marriage:
âIn England and Wales, students were expected to pick a path with knowledge only of the limited menu they had been exposed to early in high school. That is sort of like being forced to choose at sixteen whether you want to marry your high school sweetheart. At the time it might seem like a great idea, but the more you experience, the less great that idea looks in hindsight. In England and Wales, adults were more likely to get divorced from the careers they had invested in because they settled down too early. If we treated careers more like dating, nobody would settle down so quickly.â
In summarizing the study, Epstein aptly observes:Â Â
âLearning stuff [is] less important than learning about oneself. Exploration is not just a whimsical luxury of education; it is a central benefit.â
Our True North Program (cited in the Washington Post & Hechinger Report) supports students in navigating their journeys practically and purposefully. Effective exploratory programs engage students in self-discovery that ultimately clarifies their vocational direction. Education shouldnât be making choices for young people; it should be teaching them to decide for themselves whatâs best.Â
Are you (or your students) hyper-focused on a specific destination/goal, or open to exploring a variety of options?How do you promote an attitude of adventure and exploration?
đWhat Comedy Teaches Us About Craft
Judd Apatow Has Notes - Working It Out With Mike Birbiglia
Author, comedian, and filmmaker, Mike Birbiglia, interviews the famed movie producer and director Judd Apatow, on comedy. Both are parents and the art of raising young people is central to their work. Birbiglia starred in a one-person Broadway Show (now available on Netflix) about the trials and tribulations of fathering and has a new book coming out on the topic. Many of Apatowâs movies have centered on parenting, including: Knocked Up, This Is 40, and King Of Staten Island. Â
Itâs fun to hear two people who love comedy talk about perfecting their craft. Itâs why we love seeing Olympic athletes in action - watching others devote themselves wholeheartedly to their passion is a thing of beauty.
Listening to this podcast will give you a glimpse of the joys of fanning the flames of your studentâs craft. A noble goal of raising young people is to help them find a craft they love as much as Apatow and Birbiglia love comedy. Start with where your students are now: what are they obsessed with? What could they talk about for hours? What subject instantly sends them down a YouTube rabbit hole? Where do you see a spark of a passion that could be fanned into a craft?Â
Turn the questions to yourself â what are your healthy obsessions?Â
The author, artist, and parent Austin Kleon explains that the best way to help our children become the kind of people we want them to be is by surrounding them with these kinds of people. âThese peopleâ include us:
If we want to raise whole human beings, we have to become whole human beings ourselves. Role modeling is much more powerful than telling students what to do. This is the hard work.
Want your students to read more? Let them see you reading every day.
Want your students to serve their community? Let them see you volunteering and giving generously.Â
Want your students to spend more time outside? Let them see you take breaks from your technology to embrace nature.
Is there something you love to do or practice? Do you have a craft? Does your student get to see you working at it?Â
How do you help your people develop their crafts?
đThe Scenic Route
Things with little practical value that we love all the same.
Every day we can expand our lives. We can practice exploring more of life outside our familiar little bubbles. Todayâs scenic route is Every Noise At Once. Itâs a plot representing more than 1,200 musical genres. How do you navigate it? You just wander around it. As you travel down the page, the genres are increasingly organic. As you go up, youâll hear more mechanical and electric tunes. As you go left, youâll hear dense and atmospheric music. As you go right, spikier and bouncier.Â
Enjoy.
Do you have a question about how to navigate life? Simply reply to this email and we will answer your question directly, or we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter. All responses will remain anonymous.
I remember when I was a freshman I was so stressed out about picking a major because everyone around me seemed to know what they were doing (especially those in Business schools). However, after a few months, I started to realize that those who claimed to know what they were doing were mostly just faking it to make it seem like they had it all under control.
In short, the anxiety around picking a major is very common and normal.
So naturally, I took the other route of exploration. I changed my major 7 times. Pretty much each time I passed by the academics office I would tell my friends to wait outside while I changed to a new major (since a lot of classes were major specific). Haha I know my case might be a bit extreme. After trying out ComSci, German, PoliSci, Comm, Journalism, Asian Studies, and Developmental Psych, I decided to go with psych. But I did not stop exploring either! I also picked up a Theology double major along the way. I was recently accepted to a graduate mental health counseling program and I am looking forward to trying out documentary film-making after that/starting my counseling career/applying to a PhD program!
The future holds so many possibilities but I think staying true to where my passion lies has been extremely helpful in guiding me onto the path that will bring the most fulfillment and a sense of purpose.
If anyone has ideas/suggestions/questions feel free to add them here :)