Marian Grads, Are They Ready to Face the World?
by Katie Beller
"Sponsored by the Servants of Mary, Marian is a National Blue Ribbon school and Omaha's only all-girls, Class A, Catholic, college preparatory high school."
Check out almost any advertisement for Marian, and this is what you will see. It's our claim to fame. The administrators are so proud, and quick, to say that any graduate from Marian is a step ahead in their college courses. They are 100 percent correct in saying that, Marian is a very academically challenging school. I'll be able to write a five-paragraph essay without thinking twice, reading a novel a week will be no challenge, and taking notes from lecture will be normal. I realize students from a lot of schools can't say that.
But when I go to college and accidentally leave my purse on a table will I actually think it will be there five minutes later? Or when I leave my dorm room unlocked and I come back to see it vandalized, will I be surprised?
Every day we walk into a bubble, a shelter from the harsh real world. For four years we are (except for rare occasions) guarded from the vandalizations and assaults we only hear about from other schools.
It just seems to me that students and faculty alike are way too wrapped up in looking good, and "being prepared". I feel prepared for some of my first year classes, sure, but that's not the most important thing to me. I am perfectly ok with learning with the rest of my class. But most of them will know some thing that I haven't learned or experienced. For example, what "real life" is like.
There's obviously nothing you or I can do about this issue. I just don't believe I am $20,000 prepared for life. Sure our first year Calculus class may be a breeze, but Real Life 101 is not a part of Marian's curriculum.