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Do you hear the students sing? | Category: | Editorials (Comments) | | Published Date: | 01/02/2007 | |
CommentsDo you hear the students sing?
’Cause I sure don’t—and our campus is a stressful and unhappy place for it Cat McDonald There are many parts of our university education that have become so ingrained in the process that, despite their obvious faults, have never been questioned. Students go about their daily business never understanding that there’s a better way to do things—a way that many universities keep under wraps.
While the mental health of students is complex, there’s no question that the demands of academics are a major source of stress. What is it about our university process that engenders such deep-set feelings of alienation in students? Is it the deadlines? The amazing amount of pressure that can ride on the outcome of a single exam or essay? The rising tuition costs?
I submit that while these factors are damaging to a student’s psyche, none of them is the true reason why depression runs rampant among youth in academia. The real reason is something so simple, so obvious, that many have overlooked it in their search for a happier university: there is a significant lack of spontaneous musical numbers in academia.
A quick look at the official Calendar will show that the University has no courses in dance-off mechanics or duets—the latter of which are arguably the hardest part of any musical.
When was the last time you heard a student start up a fast-paced chorus in SUB about the stress of their impending exam season? The last time one of your professors looked poetically out the window while the piano began the first strains of a mournful ballad?
These things should be staples of any university experience. By the end of a proper musical number, everyone feels that they know exactly where they stand. Musicals usually have happy endings for a reason; the power of music lifts people’s spirits, and helps make sure that everything turns out all right in the end. If we harness the power of song (even those angry, aggressive rock solos that the villains get), we can bring more optimism and more hope to a youth culture that finds itself feeling increasingly hopeless and lost.
Sure, while the drums are crashing and the villainous professor is belting out the very exact standards by which your upcoming essays are to be marked, things will seem bleak. But aren’t they bleak already? Isn’t the thick, stunned silence from cowed students the bleakest sound on the planet? As we shuffle around silently in the corridors, hoping desperately for some way to let everyone around us know how tragically close to the edge we are, couldn’t we benefit from a little song and dance? Wouldn’t that last chorus of “My God, We’re Screwed!” help us get those frustrations off our collective chests?
It took a long time to realize what was missing; it’s been gone so long that no one seemed to notice anything was missing at all. But, now that we know, how can we not do everything in our power to ease our stress-worn hearts? So, everyone, let’s take this whole academia thing once more from the top—with feeling.
Wanna respond? Send your feedback to gateway@gateway.ualberta.ca.
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