For school leavers
Source:Island
One imagines that over the years School Principals develop a splendid antenna which allows no school child’s mis-demeanour or untoward emotion to go undetected. Such is certainly not the case. Most of the bustling little beings in the care of the school’s Staff have the eyes of angels and the minds and hearts of a Judas. They fool their parents most of the time, their teachers some of the time and the general public all the time.
When they leave school to go out into the world of Higher Studies Principals try to soften the transition from the protected atmosphere of a school campus to the comparatively unprotected freedom of University. The following hints are for students who intend getting their Degrees and are positively ecstatic that they no longer have their Principal or any of their teachers breathing down their necks on a daily basis. They look forward to unbridled freedom and I really do worry about the rosy haze that envelops their thinking.
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Reality brings them up short. University careers demand concentration and hard work. They demand organization of time. They demand serious studying. Some wilt under the pressure. Others find they cannot cope with life outside their homes. (Mothers bringing them orange juice each morning and practically bathing them, dressing them and then driving them to school are things of the past.) They have been too cocooned, too fussed over with all initiative stifled. To send such a child abroad to study without preparation is inviting disaster.
We hear the success stories of well performing students but the failures are hushed up. And believe me there are failures. Not necessarily academic failures but a failure to cope with life away from home. So here is some of the advice I hand out to every batch of AL students planning to study abroad, imagining themselves totally prepared to face the world
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First of all expect to be homesick. See it through. The first three months are hard but life becomes much easier after that. One young girl of my acquaintance called home each night. (These days of easy communication have minus points too). “I want to come home,” she sobbed into the phone. “I am so lonely here.” “Coming home is not an option right now,” said her wise Mother. “If you feel the same after a year you can scrap your Degree plans but you must see out the year.” At the end of her four-year Degree course it was hard to get her home at all.
2. If you console yourself with the words, “I’ll party tonight and study tomorrow,” you area bigger sucker than you think. That tomorrow never comes. Make a study plan from the outset and stick to it unless you are dying.
3. Eat sensibly. It is a standard joke that students returning from the USA all gain a minimum of ten pounds. Universities in America provide their students with fantastic menus. Visiting my granddaughter at her College I watched open mouthed at the unbelievable quantity and quality of food served buffet style at a normal, everyday lunch. There was Italian food in one corner, Indian food in another, and Mexican food in a third. Meats, fish and western –style dishes were on a table loaded with breads of all kinds. Faced with these bewildering choices Asian students tend to go for the spicy menus. Of course they obviously may over-eat during that difficult first year but a little common sense should soon prevail.
4. Learn discrimination. Choose friends wisely which means those with steady minds and habits which your parents will find reassuring. There may be other Sri Lankans in your University you will tend to hang out with. Try to cultivate friends of all races too. A student from here should enjoy the diversity of cultures and races.
5. Join the Clubs. One Buddhist girl I know had a lovely voice and joined the Choir of the University’s Church. She had a great time. Nobody tried to convert her. In fact they listened to her views on religion with much respect. Upon gaining her Degree it was the Church Chaplain’s glowing letter of recommendation that helped her get her first job in New York.
6. Sri Lankan students go all over the world nowadays. They go to India, China, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and Australia apart from the UK and USA. They must adjust to new atmospheres all the time. Most try to cope sensibly because they realize the financial burden their parents undertake on their behalf.
7. Don’t drink (much). Most Universities have strict rules about minors drinking but I have been reading some hair-raising tales about undergraduate partying. Be careful and do not take part in socializing just to be popular.
8. Our students should attempt to copy the best of the West and not become mere carbon copies of their unshaven, badly dressed counterparts. It is not `cool’ to be so easily influenced by a down slide of standards. One boy returned home with an Afro hair style a strange accent and a totally re-invented personality. He also managed to lose his University funding that year. He was set straight at home and has just finished his Degree with honours.
