What's wrong with kids these days?

     So, I have previously mentioned my intense involvement in school (president of 3 clubs, on a bunch of committees, etc.). What I've recently noticed on campus is everyone else's intense uninvolvement. I have to practically club students over the head and drag them to meetings. The Writer's Club, for example, has maybe 8 members and for the past two or three weeks only one or two of them even show up. The committees at school are severely ignored, something that should be of at least some importance to college students. Some of these committees have a rather large say in what the money they pay for tuition helps to support. Plus, being involved in campus activities goes a long way as far as applying to other colleges when it comes time to transfer. I think that this fact and the money issue should be enough motivation for at least some of the more motivated students to get involved, but the majority of our campus seems to be asleep. Granted UW-Fox is only a two year institution, but the lack of motivation that I have observed here is so disheartening.
     I was having a conversation about this outside with the president of the sustainability club and we were at a loss on how to solve this problem. Where does it even stem from? Is this just a symptom of our college? Is it all two-year colleges? Is it the whole Fox Valley area? The county? The state? The country?

     Not that I don't think the population as a whole doesn't have some kind of involvement problem. Our voting statistics have decilned in the last few years (73% in 2004 and 69% in 2008, which is still appalling if you ask me. Why would ANYONE not vote? It's free for Christ's sake). Most people I know around my age don't even connsider voting in local elections, which is just plain sad considering how many people bitch and whine about the government. It doesn't do much good to have other people vote for things that affect your life, then complain about how horrible some new policy is. If I hear someone make the claim "Well, my one vote isn't really going to count in the long run..." one more time I'm going to vomit...all over the person who says it. It's only fair that people so blatently ignorant should experience my disgust towards their stupidity as physically as I do. Every time I hear someone say something like that, I think of the hundreds of thousands of other people saying the exact same thing at the exact same time and it's enough to make me want to leave the country. Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on that rant because what I really wanted focus on was the college problem I'd previously stated.

     Let's get back on the path we strayed away from here...where was I? Oh, low involvement on campus and high dropout rates, that's right. As I pondered this problem the other day, I settled on what I think is one of the main problems, high school. Think about it...what did high school really do for you? It sure as Hell isn't a place that to fosters the minds of our youth. If anything they're all about hammering students into submission rather than allowing them to question the world around them. I think these kids come to college expecting it to be more like high school and fail miserably because it's nothing like the structured world they came from. I remember one of my first days in college, my english professor (the infamous Bill Gillard) stood up in front of the class and the first thing he said to us was, "What am I supposed to teach you?" (which isn't the exact quote, but it's close). The class was at a loss. They couldn't even wrap their minds around it. It had been ingrained in them to follow, not lead. They expected him to tell us what we would learn, not what we wanted to learn, but he had made a good point. We were paying for the class, we should have some kind of say in what goes on in the classroom.
     College is not a place where teachers will hold your hand or call your parents if you miss a class. For kids who aren't used to making responsible decisions this is like an open invitation for failure. This isn't true for everyone, but many kids (especially the ones who have parents willing to foot the bill for tuition) get drunk on their newfound freedom. Damn, our school isn't even a big party school and there are students who flunk out because they spent too much time getting drunk. That shouldn't even be an excuse! A good percentage of these kids don't even have jobs or only work part time! School is their only responsibility and it isn't that hard. I go out drinking plenty, am involved on campus, work part time and still get damn good grades, even though I'm often scrambling to finish essays the day before they're due. Our education system is failing for many kids, especially those with learning disabilities. Take ADD for example, it's something that could potentially be considered an advantage, but not in our system. Instead of having any classes tailored to their needs (keep in mind they comprise a larger and larger percentage of students each year) we see them as a "problem" within the system because the way they learn doesn't fit nicely into the way our curriculum or teaching styles are set up. Instead we stick them in special classrooms and label them as LD. This has a HUGE negative effect on their motivation and self-esteem. It's just not fair and things need to change. We've been avoiding changes in the school system for too long.
     Maybe I should give more consideration to entering the field of politics....