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Current events, vital part of learning |
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Thursday, 12 October 2006 |
by Jamison DORAN
If I have one pet peeve in this world, it’s uninformed people.
I can’t stand trying to talk to someone when they have no grasp of current events.
I’m not saying everyone needs to be a news junkie like me and watch CNN 24/7. I’m not even recommending it.
The combination of CNN’s graphics, music and an overdose of Wolf
Blitzer’s voice could very well cause an aneurysm (a risk I’m willing
to take).
All I’m saying is, we as college students aren’t so busy that we have
to remain ignorant to the world around us. We can take a couple seconds
out of our days to turn on the news or look at a paper.
According to a study by the School of Public Affairs at the University
of Maryland, “college students know no more about politics than high
school graduates in 1950.”
I would venture to guess political knowledge isn’t the only thing lacking in college students.
Professors of mine recall sitting around the TV and taking in the big
breaking news of the day when they were teenagers and college students.
Now, we’re lucky if the average college student has a relative grasp of the events in the news.
This past week the big news was Mark Foley’s resignation over alleged e-mails and instant messages he sent to underage pages.
As a political science major, this topic was discussed in some of my classes.
I was shocked to hear some of my classmate’s lack of knowledge on the subject, even days after the story broke.
Some were not aware of the scandal at all, others didn’t realize who
Mark Foley was or what the general content of the instant messages were.
I understand that we are busy people. We have important obligations. We
have our classes, are involved in clubs and many of us work full or
part time. Not to mention the fact that we want to enjoy our college
experience.
However, this is no excuse for being apathetic to the world around us.
The poor results of the recent study on the civic knowledge of college
students was worrisome because it has been proven time and time again
that people who are more knowledgeable in civic and political knowledge
are going to be more involved and active.
I know it sounds cliché and even corny to say this, but we are the
future. It isn’t too late for us to become involved. Just start out
slow.
Devote five minutes out of your day to glance at the headlines. If that works, then maybe bump it up to ten.
Hopefully you’ll see this news stuff is interesting and can apply to your day-to-day life.
Just think how impressive you’ll be when you inform all your friends of
the breaking news you saw on television. Or how impressed your
professors will be when you can raise your hand confidently to add
something insightful about the upcoming elections during an in-class
discussion.
You may or may not reach news junkie status (like me), but you’ll at
the very least be a more informed and quite possibly a happier
individual.
Plus, as an added incentive, Anderson Cooper isn’t bad on the eyes.
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