The Point of College is….Points! Is this what those billions are really for?

In an exasperated Facebook post, one of my young friends complained about her first-semester college class. “Don’t you hate it when you raise your hand and know the answer and your teacher doesn’t call on you?” I replied, know-it-all professor and adult that I am: Isn’t it about what you’re learning?

And she replied, “No, it’s because you have to answer questions a certain number of times to get points.”

Ah, points.

The point of learning is to get the points.

In an exasperated Facebook post, one of my young friends complained about her first-semester college class. “Don’t you hate it when you raise your hand and know the answer and your teacher doesn’t call on you?” I replied, know-it-all professor and adult that I am: Isn’t it about what you’re learning?

And she replied, “No, it’s because you have to answer questions a certain number of times to get points.”

Ah, points.

The point of learning is to get the points.

That’s what all the studying, books, papers, listening is about: it’s about getting points. Obviously.

Because points get you grades, and grades get you credits, and credits get you requirements, and requirements get you majors and degrees, and degrees get you jobs, and jobs get you money, and money gets you security and happiness.

How could I have missed the obvious chain of reasoning? How could I have been so clueless as to think that we were there for some more mystical, alchemical reason, to scramble the cells of our young charges’ being and create some new life form, attuned to the mysteries of human life or empowered by understanding of invisible forces? What was I thinking, decades ago, when I thought it would be rewarding to go daily into classrooms with people scarcely out of teenagehood and make something happen? Why do I stay up at night wondering if I have ordered the topics carefully enough so that a strong foundation is laid at the beginning, along with some mysterious examples, and the arc will play out over fifteen weeks, allowing those explorers to end somewhere different from where I began? Why do universities have learning centers and teaching evaluations and teaching mentoring?

So we can better dole out points.

Now I get it.

How many points do I get for my newfound understanding?