Engineering A High School Robot

Recipe for a Well-Rounded, Desirable College Candidate · Minimum 1400 SAT score · 3.8 GPA or higher · Minimum of four Advanced Placement classes · Membership in at least three honor societies · Community service every weekend ·

Intern for Mr. Bigshot Scientist · Varsity team sports captain · Musical virtuoso "So which AP classes are you taking this year?" I asked casually. My friend responded automatically.

"BC Calculus, Literature, Chemistry, Computer Science, Spanish-" "Do you like computer science and chemistry?" I asked in disbelief. "No, but those classes will look good to college admissions officers," my friend replied confidently.

That's why I volunteer at the nursing home every other weekend, too, even though that's boring as heck." I hope I'm not the only one who has noticed that massive numbers of high school students are jamming as many honors or Advanced Placement classes into their schedules as they possibly can simply to impress colleges.

Gone, are the days when students were encouraged to take classes they were actually interested in. Nowadays, school is all about graduation requirements and classes intended to awe colleges.

Many students participate in seemingly noble activities such as soup kitchens and entertaining old folks at nursing homes simply because they can jot that on their resumes and "wow" colleges with their altruistic tendencies.

The recipe for the desirable college candidate doesn't end here, unfortunately. The key word is "well-rounded." So, not only must you be philanthropic and an intellectual genius to appeal to colleges, but you should also be a star musician and an excellent athlete. And be in some sort of leadership position.

And have that flashy SAT score. One can hardly blame students for trying to be an intellectual genius, sports captain, star pianist and compassionate volunteer all at once, especially when their worth and appeal to colleges are supposed to be revealed in a small stack of papers and possibly an interview - if you're lucky.

But if we let the current system continue, we will wind up cranking out robots whose only function is to be and do everything possible in hopes of being "well-rounded" and appealing to colleges. What's wrong with the system, though? Aren't we training our students to be well-rounded people venturing into the great big world? What could possibly be flawed about that?

The answer is simple: This endless laundry list of activities and awards students are tripping over themselves to achieve just drains all of them of one essential element - passion. Passion to be a leader to their peers, passion to serve their community, passion to take difficult classes to reach their potential - which is what should be the impetus behind all this.

Do we really want the next generation to consist of individuals who lack passion? Do you want a doctor who is devoid of passion to help his patients, who is simply doing his job to make big bucks? Do you want the principal at your school to be there just because of the title, not because he or she wants to make a difference in the lives of kids? Probably not.

You want them to do their jobs with genuine passion. The recipe for a desirable college candidate in today's day and age lacks one key ingredient: passion. The current system is engineering well-rounded robots-not people.

Article provided by