Hacker News Reader

Comment by mquander | Hacker News Reader

OK. 50 or 60 percent of U.S. high school graduates in 2009 went directly to college. What percentage of those do you think are studying academic subjects because they feel the subjects are "enriching their life"? 20%? 10%? 5%? 2%?

The American 18-year-old is not a demographic in which you find many philosophers.

View on HN

I think you'd be surprised.

Maybe it's the company I keep, or the college I go to, but hell if not at least 90% of the kids who go here think they're "enriching their lives".

No. I am a grad student teaching first-year calculus. 90% are getting a chance to party and maybe 10% are the idealists.

These numbers may be self-selecting by the schools both you go to...

Or because one is based on how people present themselves, and one is based on how people approach their studies.

I'm not sure how you can tell. It's easy to form opinions like this about undergraduates that you're teaching, but in practice they're based on virtually nothing. You don't know these people, you just interact with them in a very restricted way for a few hours a week. (And you spend hardly any time at all with them on a one-to-one basis.) At least, that's how I fell when I'm teaching.

I don't think first-years are a fair assessment of any institution. Many of the original 90% partiers will either a) shape up, b) drop out of college or c) some other choice. Good luck -- my friend is also a grad student teaching first-year calculus for "business, social sciences and humanities" .. ie kids that aren't interested in math. In his words, "it's painful".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com