Students must take an active role in their education

Walker is an assistant professor in the political science
department and was the recipient of last year’s Distinguished
Teaching Award. You can e-mail him at [email protected].

By Brian Walker

Some beginning students approach college like baby birds ““
heads tilted back, waiting to be fed.

But public universities such as UCLA are not like mother birds.
They are big and somewhat impersonal machines and they can’t
be trusted to bring you what you need or to take care of you. You
have to look after yourself in order to create an educational
experience that you can look back on with pleasure and pride.

At UCLA, you have to take a much more active role in creating
your educational experience than was the case in high school or
junior college. By and large, that is a good thing since it teaches
you how to look after your own education, and that’s the best
thing you could possibly learn here. If you learn to look after
yourself in this way, UCLA can give you one of the best experiences
of your life.

There is an old Iranian proverb stating that, in education, you
should try to “light a fire rather than fill a pail.”
In other words, increasing your knowledge is important but the main
thing about education is lighting up a passion in yourself.

  Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff If
you can find your way to that passion, everything else will come
naturally to you. A sincere love of knowledge will keep you
expanding yourself and becoming more capable for the rest of your
life.

UCLA is a place where you can come to catch fire.

Of course, it is confusing to try to put together an education
for yourself and cultivate your passions before you are entirely
sure of what you really want out of life. This confusion can be
very stressful! But a certain amount of confusion is part of growth
““ as you have no doubt figured out ““ and if you can
remain aware of that fact you will go easier on yourself.

Here are a few rules of thumb that can help you.

Try to get a good general education, one that stretches your
sense of who you are. Take classes in many different areas and keep
opening yourself up each year.

Sit in on classes even if you are not enrolled in them in order
to get a taste for different subject areas. Talk to your fellow
students about what they are studying. Expose yourself to as much
as possible in order to discover what your natural talents and
predilections are.

Maybe you have a real knack for microbiology that you
didn’t know about, or a gift for Milton scholarship that will
make you the envy of your fellow students and open up a highly
satisfying career. Maybe you are the new Picasso. But you will
never know until you get your hands on a paintbrush or a piece of
charcoal.

You cannot find out your own particular gifts and talents if you
don’t experiment and explore. So don’t lock yourself
into a narrow pathway until you absolutely have to.

Another rule of thumb is that one of the best things about the
university is the people.

Modern U.S. life can be pretty lonely. Don’t be fooled
into thinking that the great social environment you find in college
will continue forever. The college experience is one of the only
chances you will have to constantly meet new people, learn from
them, and to build friendships for life.

You should do everything you can to take advantage of this
special window of opportunity. For example, it is a good idea to
join clubs and groups, especially if you’re shy or start to
feel depressed and overwhelmed.

Faced with a heavy workload, your first temptation will always
be to squirrel yourself away with your computer.

But let your watchword be Balance! Students who participate in
clubs and associations while continuing to pay attention to their
schoolwork tend, on average, to get better grades than students who
just stick to their books. In part, this is because being with
other people stimulates the mind and expands your emotional
capacity.

In clubs and associations, you exercise parts of yourself that
won’t get developed in your classes. You can also pick up
skills that will be very valuable to you later in life.

Reaching out to other people is also useful for studying.
Creating study circles and discussion groups can help you get much
more out of your classes than if you just kept to yourself all the
time. Class Web site discussion boards can be an excellent way to
organize people like this.

When people work together they see more than each would
individually; learning to listen to other people is one of the keys
to education.

Again, the more you reach out to other people the more you shake
off your shyness and open yourself up to friendships.

Many of you have to take jobs to get through college. Always
remember that you will be working for the rest of your life, but
that you only get one chance of going to college. You should do
everything you can to make your college life a priority during
these years.

Could you work fewer hours if you did away with luxuries?

You might consider this as an option since it can help open up
time for more studying, a deeper engagement with extracurricular
activities and friends, or time for the other things that make this
period of your life unique.

When you finish college, you will have to make many decisions
that will influence you for the rest of your life. You will have to
start thinking about choosing a career, about which city to live in
and perhaps who to take as a marriage partner.

You might see your college career as a time when you train
yourself to make these choices. The best way to train yourself is
to become a well-rounded individual.

The university has been designed as a tool to help you do
that.

Mathematics and the sciences train your brain to think logically
and rationally ““ to look for evidence and argument rather
than being fooled by fluff and fireworks.

The humanities train your sensitivity and judgment, sharpen your
eyes, open your ears, and teach you how to express yourself with
efficiency and resonance.

Philosophy hones your sense of principle and shows you how to
orient yourself in the moral world.

Sports and club life can relax you, teach you how to deal with
groups of people and to play well with others.

Deep in its heart, the university contains a picture of a fully
realized human being. Those who get the most out of their time here
seek out that vision and orient themselves toward it.

If you grasp this fact and work towards this deep vision, your
time here will be much more rewarding than if you just sit back and
expect UCLA to fill you up as if you were a baby bird.

Learning begins with thinking. If you think hard about what you
are doing here you will learn more, have more fun and become a
bigger person.