"Here we are now entertain us"

What is your education worth to you? What is it for? A better job? The delay of getting " a real job?" The joy of learning? A necessary evil? What is it mean to be educated? To come from a university such as BSU, rather than Harvard, Yale and so on? Amy and I were discussing this today and voicing our frustration over our shared view that the rush through undergraduate courses such as in depth theory courses for example, really leaves you unprepared for any decent master's program in that field. If you can't even right a good paper or know where to begin conducting research or how to conduct such research with any level of confidence that how are you going to survive grad school? I've heard rumors that our university is pushing its faculty to spend less time focusing on the undergrad portion (make it all standardized tests, rather than paper assignments for example) and more time devoting attention to producing quality grad programs. What about producing quality graduates? I would really hate to think that I have put myself this much in to debt to simply be able to put a piece of paper in a frame and post it on my wall. I want my education to mean more than that. I don't care that this isn't Yale or UC Berkeley because I feel that college is as much what you put into it as what you're offered. So,
I know when I haven't worked up to my abilities in a class that I am letting myself down more than anyone else. I disagree though with the idea that faculty efforts are a waste of time or student engagement is irrelevant. I think these are the ONLY opportunities we have to make an education more than the highly expensive piece of paper on the wall. I won't remain in a class where the faculty appears disinterested or vocalizes this because I feel that that is cheating the students out of their money and their time. Further, I think that the administration of the University owes it to their staff and the student population and even the reputation of the University to prepare its students for more than the opportunity to get a better paying job.
It is wonderful to want to develop new programs and enhance existing ones but wouldn't the university be better off making itself a name by producing the kind of graduates that can go to Harvard, Yale and Berkeley and actually thrive? That says something does it not? Shouldn't that be part of the curriculum and the focus on students rather than simply advertising that we have a mass surplus of fresh workers ready to be plucked up by whatever employer hasn't outsourced yet?

Students have a responsibility as well to get involved and to remain invested in their education and not just treat it as a waste of their time. Faculty aren't here to entertain us or even torture us by making us read more than we feel comfortable or to speak when we'd rather not. I don't have the luxury of treating my education as my sole career (though I wish I could) but Amy, me and many many other students at the campus are more than willing to do that crazy dance of trying to balance our education with the reality of our lives and to sell students and faculty short in cutting the budget, in pushing students through without the kind of depth of learning that they're paying for is a disservice to all involved, especially those who actually give a damn.

peace!