Relieved from the overloaded burden of homework in senior high school, many students go into college only to find that they have plunged into the sea of knowledge and without anybody telling them where to swim. Some people are filled with misgiving about university student’s free choice: how could they possibly tell, at such a young age, which subject is more useful than others and choose it as their focus of study in the next four years which are probably the most valuable time in their entire life? In my view, however, such considerations seem rather superfluous, for choosing a subject by students themselves is beneficial both to the students and the whole society as well.
Firstly, as the saying aptly expresses, “interest is the best teacher”, which means only when we have passion for something can we do it better. A good teacher must love teaching and keep the student’s interest in mind, and a physician must love saving life before he can be humane and sympathetic toward his patients, while a pianist should be crazy about playing and then become a top-notch artist. Contrarily, a person not fascinated by what he is doing is much less likely to get anywhere in his career.
Secondly, the boudary between “useful” and “useless” subjects is not that clear-cut as some people might have expected. Undoubtebly, science and technology is of paramount importance to the development of our world, but it does not follow that other less practical subjects like philosophy and literature are useless. While the increased knowledge about our body, for example, may help us live longer, a better understanding about history, culture and ourselves provided by liberal arts may show us what kind of life is more valuable and therefore more worth living.
To conclude, rather than restricting the students to certain “useful” subjects, parents and universities should encourage them to study whatever they like to. By doing so, the students will be able to learn those things, be it useful or not, that really intereset them, and this is helpful to the future career of the students, and to the contribution they can make to the world.
Relieved from the overloaded burden of homework in senior high school,
many
students
go into college
only
to find that they have plunged into the sea of knowledge and without anybody telling them where to swim.
Some
people
are filled
with misgiving about university
student’s
free choice: how could they
possibly
tell
, at such a young age, which
subject
is more
useful
than others and choose it as their focus of study in the
next
four years which are
probably
the most valuable time in their entire life? In my view,
however
, such considerations seem
rather
superfluous, for choosing a
subject
by
students
themselves is beneficial both to the
students
and the whole society
as well
.
Firstly
, as the saying
aptly
expresses, “interest is the best teacher”, which means
only
when we have passion for something can we do it better. A
good
teacher
must
love
teaching and
keep
the
student’s
interest in mind, and a physician
must
love
saving life
before
he can be humane and sympathetic toward his patients, while a pianist should be crazy about playing and then become a top-notch artist.
Contrarily
, a person not fascinated by what he is doing is much less likely to
get
anywhere in his career.
Secondly
, the
boudary
between
“useful”
and “useless”
subjects
is not that
clear
-
cut
as
some
people
might have
expected
.
Undoubtebly
, science and technology is of paramount importance to the development of our world,
but
it does not follow that other less practical
subjects
like philosophy and literature are useless. While the increased knowledge about our body,
for example
, may
help
us
live
longer, a better understanding about history, culture and ourselves provided by liberal arts may
show
us what kind of life is more valuable and
therefore
more worth living.
To conclude
,
rather
than restricting the
students
to certain
“useful”
subjects
, parents and universities should encourage them to study whatever they like to. By doing
so
, the
students
will be able to learn those things, be it
useful
or not, that
really
intereset
them, and this is helpful to the future career of the
students
, and to the contribution they can
make
to the world.