By David Hinckley
Most of us work. The National Survey of Student Engagement surveyed BYU students last year and found that among seniors, 57 percent of 270 respondents worked at least a few hours on campus and 40 percent worked off campus. Even with the probability of some cross-over between the two, that?s still a healthy majority. And while a minority of freshmen worked, it wasn?t by much.
Of course we work. I have a wife and 3-month-old at home. I got a job this semester.
Victorian England lies in the distant past. We don?t come from well-endowed homes with beneficent parents who stay home and study literature while sending their children to the best colleges in the nation. In our society, there?s a certain expectation that children will work for what they get. So even many of those with well-to-do parents are chipping in for school.
But the fact is, most of our middle-class parents don?t have the means to fund our educations. So our work becomes a race to the finish. Supporting ourselves, we play the questionable game of ?how many hours can I work and still get my diploma?? Our jobs determine our standard of living, so we work as much as we can while making our way to graduation and a fatter paycheck.
So how does a student keep a balance? How many hours can a student work and still get the all-important diploma? Or, given a job, how many credits can that student handle?
Kerry Hammock, an academic and career advisor, says it varies widely from student to student. Some students, he says, could handle 20 credits and still work part time. Others need to take things more slowly. A lot, he says, depends on how busy the student is outside of school. The problem he usually sees is not too much academic work, but too many other activities.
But extra-curricular activities are also important. Jane Lawson, clinical director at the counseling and career center, suggests there is more to a healthy life than work and school.
?There?s social, and emotional growth, as well as intellectual growth,? she says.
?There?s physical exercise. Look at all the aspects of your life and work out a balance of what you need.?
It?s good advice, in a classical, rational way of thinking. Number off your priorities and decide what?s most important. Adjust your schedule to do what?s most important. Get the diploma, support yourself, but also participate in activities that will make you well-rounded.
Can I suggest there?s more to it?
The problem with maximizing both school and work time in an attempt to glide through school is that it puts too much value on the piece of paper: the diploma. We all know it?s meaningless. Pre-med, pre-dental, and pre-law students have for years taken quick routes to the diploma on their way to ?better? degrees.
We all eventually get the diploma, if we stick it out long enough. But it?s in the white space, in scheduling gaps, that we have the discretion to expand on what we?re doing. It?s there I can decide to study a little more before class or get an extra source for my paper. It?s there I can plan how my classes should fit in with my desired education.
And all classical logic aside, there is nothing like thoughtful, dedicated work. In seven semesters at BYU, I?ve experienced my share of ?B?s that, in a classical sense, move me toward the diploma, but which mean nothing else because I?ve already forgotten the material. At the same time, I?ve earned a couple of wonderful ?C?s in classes I gave real time and thought to, in which I was too busy learning to make the grade.
Those efforts more often elicit ?A?s, but in an absolute sense it really doesn?t matter. Either way, it moves me toward graduation. But given the meaninglessness of the diploma, the significance of the class is not in the grade, and to an extent, it?s not in the learning, either. I?m convinced that the real value is in leaning what it means to do a high-quality job. And whether your aim is a top grad school or a high-paying job, the ability to do high-quality jobs sets you apart. Just ask ?Lemmings? director Craig Van Dyke or anyone on his animation team. Within a year of the award-winning project?s debut, most of the team had moved on to big-time animation jobs and Van Dyke was up for an Emmy.
That brings me back to the packed work/school schedule. A maxed-out student never learns what it means to do a high-quality job because he is consumed with his myriad activities. As those activities increase in number, the depth of each decreases. And often, work is the single largest activity in terms of time spent, but claims the shallowest inner commitment.
So here?s to a more manageable schedule. Here?s to scheduling white-space. Here?s to real thought and quality work. Here?s to fewer activities and deeper commitments to each of them.
In many cases, opening up the schedule can be a painful process that means less hours at work. It means slower graduation. But it also means an escape from the rat-race mentality, freedom from the tyranny of the grade and enlightenment at knowing what you are doing is worthwhile.
It may earn you less money while at college, but I don?t call it a lower standard of living at all.