Lazy students lower education value

The average day of a college student usually goes something like this - Get up. Class soon. Five minutes late. Boring lecture. Next class. Test. Didn't study. Pray to pass. Teacher is a jerk. Break. Last class. Lab. Way too long. Zone out for three hours. Done. Nap. Food. Friends. Homework on occasion. Pray to pass.

Texas is ranked in the 50th percentile for educational achievement in the nation and 63% of full time college students that attended a Texas High school require remedial courses. Why?

In the face of abundant knowledge we have reverted our mindsets to "let's just get this over with." We are boastful and proud in this ideology where minimal effort receives the recognition of our peers. We have given way to complacency, and in this, hindered the purpose of the pursuit of a higher education.

College offers students an extensive set of opportunities, challenges and potential resources all aimed to help develop the skills necessary to be successful later in life. However, we have become too comfortable in our current state. We crave to know no more.

In a world with information so closely at hand, we have hindered ourselves from the full potential of our education. Intelligence is the mother of invention and we have vast amounts of technology and professors at our beck and call. We are in the age of Google web searches and easily accessed national databases. Fourteen terabytes of information are stored in the Library of Congress alone and all of this is available to us as student. But it seems that the more advantages that are presented to us by our nation, the more disadvantaged we make ourselves by succumbing to complacency.

The most dangerous aspect of complacency is the damage it causes to the educational system as a whole. Texas has the third lowest cumulative SAT score in the nation. Even worse, the average SAT score in Texas dropped eleven points between 2005 and 2008. Because of the plummeting averages, in-state standards are lowered and curriculum is watered down in hopes to raise GPAs and provide more time to "teach the test".

As a result, public colleges suffer as well. Entry-level classes are geared to the educational level of the majority and therefore the lower high school standards have equated to lower college standards.

Students who do explore the potential a fully developed education has to offer succeed in individual growth and development, possibly surpassing the highest projected standards of the opportunity itself. They are rewarded with unlimited resources and the knowledge of how to apply newly sharpened skills. But this does not seem to be the case for most.

To the students who are striving to take advantage of every opportunity college has to offer, I applaud you and hope that you continue to move forward. To those who have allowed themselves to be complacent I present you with a challenge: see the potential before you and strive to attain it. The horizon is golden with opportunity, all you have to do is reach out.