It’s the holiday season again and we all know what that means: Christmas trees, family gatherings and gift exchanges.
But unfortunately it also means crowded malls, frantic shoppers and empty sales racks; which add up to be a slightly frightening combination.
On “Black Friday“ (the day after Thanksgiving), the Westfield Solano Mall in Fairfield, Calif. was overcrowded and loud.
Around noon, patrons sported looks of excitement and panic as they hurried from store to store. But the most common look was one of fatigue, since shoppers arrived early for the sales. Some people had even been there since 2 a.m. to get a head-start on the stores that opened at 4 a.m.
“I’m going crazy right now,” said Tonmar Johnson, a shopper and father of two. “I got here around two because I knew the stores were going to be crowded, but I just had to get all the presents from my children’s ‘Wish List.’”
He looked both tired and determined as he walked away with his shopping list in-hand to join the many others whom had similar expressions and pieces of paper.
Jonathan Shorter, 21, a college student at University of California, San Diego said he arrived early because he needed a new laptop, but he never does his Christmas shopping on “Black Friday.”
“I knew that Best Buy would be having killer deals since it’s ‘Black Friday,’ so I decided to suck it up and deal with all the people,” Shorter said. “It ended up being a good choice because I got in and got out with a great laptop for cheap.”
Not everyone had such a positive outlook on the situation.
Dozens of parents dragged screaming children, people bumped into each other to get to their desired stores, some even jumped in front of others in order to snatch items off the shelves, all to obtain presents for Christmas.
I watched a woman run through the door of JC Penney as a man and a teenager prepared to walk in. Right when he opened the door to let his teenage companion go ahead of him, the woman pushed her way in front of them.
But this type of behavior is to be expected on “Black Friday” and once the infamous day ends, the mall won’t be so hectic, right?
Wrong.
In the same mall two days later, there wasn’t much change. Stores were still crowded, the lines were still long and people still knocked each other over. Yet more and more people kept arriving for the holiday savings.
Has Christmas shopping converted to an “only the strong survive” method?
Sadly, it seems as though it has.
To make matters even worse, the tense mall atmosphere won’t disappear until the Season is over. The period between “Black Friday” and Dec. 25, maybe even a bit after, means the “Christmas Spirit” we have with our family, friends and occasional stranger, will be a faint memory inside mall walls.
So for those of you who are about to tackle your local mall, get ready for the crowds and be prepared to fight for that last Transformers action figure that an old lady in a pea coat is about to take.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
To college or not to college, that is the question
If you believe that a college education is designed to completely prepare you for a future in the professional world, then you are mistaken.
Many of the most relevant life experiences are learned by doing, not by sitting in a classroom or reading a book.
So why then do many careers require degrees?
There are two main reasons.
The first is the discipline it takes to graduate from college. Not only will employers value the fact that someone has a degree qualifying him for a position, but they appreciate the fact that he chose to continue with school even though it is no longer required after the twelfth grade. Graduating from college tells employers that the graduate is not only knowledgeable, but also patient, dedicated and willing to learn.
Why else would schools require general education?
The second reason is the more obvious of the two. If Sally Sue spent roughly four years studying for the job she wants, she just might be more qualified than the guy who didn’t bother to go to college.
While sitting in class, listening to professors talk about their specialty field sometimes seems boring and irrelevant, it is beneficial. Professors actually know what they are talking about, despite what students want to believe after they are graded lower than expected on an assignment. Instructors also know other informed people and can use them as teaching aids.
In addition to the knowledge educators share in class, the homework assignments and tests they give are helpful in developing students’ skills, not just forms of torture. Then once these skills are acquired, internships serve as practice before the big game (or a career).
However relevant both of these points may seem though, numerous students will always question why they are in school.
In a YouTube video titled “A Vision of Students Today,” it documents how 200 Kansas State University students feel about college.
It starts by asking exactly what students are learning in the classroom when they learn by doing. It then shows students in a classroom giving statistics about their college experience.
They hold up papers and laptops reading “18 percent of my teachers know my name,” “I complete 49 percent of the readings assigned to me. Only 26 percent are relevant to my life,” and “I buy 100 dollar textbooks that I never open.”
The other information given is about the average number of books and emails read, the number of times students visit sites like Facebook and even the fact that they tend to use class time to surf the web on their laptops. The students share the number of hours a day they spend in class, sleeping, eating, studying and other normal daily activities. They then talk about the poverty of many people and how jobs of the future may not even exist now.
But what does all of this mean?
It means that some students will always find ways around doing the assigned readings, not pay attention in class and believe that what they are doing in school is not related to real life. They will continue to question why they go to college and the relevance of the homework assignments.
It also means that technology designed to aid in schoolwork will continue to be abused in class, people will most likely be more interested in what is going on with their friends than what the teacher is saying, and that most human beings are naturally more attracted to doing than listening.
But somehow people will continue to apply for college and student loans despite the debt after graduation. There will always be students walking the line and accepting their diplomas. And at the end of the day, it’s all because that college degree is going to get you closer to where you want to be.
Many of the most relevant life experiences are learned by doing, not by sitting in a classroom or reading a book.
So why then do many careers require degrees?
There are two main reasons.
The first is the discipline it takes to graduate from college. Not only will employers value the fact that someone has a degree qualifying him for a position, but they appreciate the fact that he chose to continue with school even though it is no longer required after the twelfth grade. Graduating from college tells employers that the graduate is not only knowledgeable, but also patient, dedicated and willing to learn.
Why else would schools require general education?
The second reason is the more obvious of the two. If Sally Sue spent roughly four years studying for the job she wants, she just might be more qualified than the guy who didn’t bother to go to college.
While sitting in class, listening to professors talk about their specialty field sometimes seems boring and irrelevant, it is beneficial. Professors actually know what they are talking about, despite what students want to believe after they are graded lower than expected on an assignment. Instructors also know other informed people and can use them as teaching aids.
In addition to the knowledge educators share in class, the homework assignments and tests they give are helpful in developing students’ skills, not just forms of torture. Then once these skills are acquired, internships serve as practice before the big game (or a career).
However relevant both of these points may seem though, numerous students will always question why they are in school.
In a YouTube video titled “A Vision of Students Today,” it documents how 200 Kansas State University students feel about college.
It starts by asking exactly what students are learning in the classroom when they learn by doing. It then shows students in a classroom giving statistics about their college experience.
They hold up papers and laptops reading “18 percent of my teachers know my name,” “I complete 49 percent of the readings assigned to me. Only 26 percent are relevant to my life,” and “I buy 100 dollar textbooks that I never open.”
The other information given is about the average number of books and emails read, the number of times students visit sites like Facebook and even the fact that they tend to use class time to surf the web on their laptops. The students share the number of hours a day they spend in class, sleeping, eating, studying and other normal daily activities. They then talk about the poverty of many people and how jobs of the future may not even exist now.
But what does all of this mean?
It means that some students will always find ways around doing the assigned readings, not pay attention in class and believe that what they are doing in school is not related to real life. They will continue to question why they go to college and the relevance of the homework assignments.
It also means that technology designed to aid in schoolwork will continue to be abused in class, people will most likely be more interested in what is going on with their friends than what the teacher is saying, and that most human beings are naturally more attracted to doing than listening.
But somehow people will continue to apply for college and student loans despite the debt after graduation. There will always be students walking the line and accepting their diplomas. And at the end of the day, it’s all because that college degree is going to get you closer to where you want to be.
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