Lose the Lectern

There’s this great song by the Massachusetts punk band Fiddlehead that has really been clicking with me recently. This track, named “Down University,” seems more relevant than ever as the incoming flood of senior Common App applications, letters of rec, and supplemental essays start to trickle in.

The cool thing about Fiddlehead is the lead singer is this dude named Patrick Flynn, who is a high school social studies teacher. (Teachers can rock, too, and I think that teacher rock bands would actually be a great future blog post topic on this site, just sayin’). I can tell through the lyrics that Flynn has probably seen many of the same behaviors and patterns that we see as these senior essays start to pile up for students.

In “Down University,” he writes:

No one cares
It’s just a name
You are more than a degree

He continues:

Rising pressure and stress to measure
up to standards
set so high in your mind

As I hear these words from this excellent song, I can’t help but think about my students who feel that they HAVE to go to some amazing school or program to be successful. I had a student a few years ago who desperately wanted to get into schools like Harvard or Columbia for a business degree.

Look, nothing against people with business degrees, but you can get a good one of those pretty much anywhere and still end up working in, you know, business. You know what they call a business major from Harvard or even small state directional schools? Oh yeah, a business major.

Look, I’m all about setting your sights high. Apply for that big school that will cost you a half million dollars over four years! Why not! There’s nothing wrong with taking the shot if it’s there.

But it also shouldn’t be your only shot. I’m alll about happiness and the quality of life, and these lyrics from this Fiddlehead song resonate with me as a teacher because students are more than their degree. They are human beings in the early stages of writing their own life story, and schools that invite a high-pressure environment for students who feel that they have to go to big-name schools to make a name for themselves is a disservice to them.

If you’re a student, all I want you to remember is this: NOBODY WILL CARE WHERE YOU WENT TO SCHOOL. I promise. People almost never ask other than to find out more about who you are rather than make judgments about you. Several people I’ve met who hold onto their college as a piece of their identity honestly just make me a little sad.

Will you be as happy at the smaller, local liberal arts school getting a degree in something you know you’ll enjoy AND turn into a career rather than just going for the nice, big name on the diploma? I’d hope so.

Find your fit. Know your worth. No one cares, it’s just a name.

Lose the Lectern!

Fiddlehead – “Down University” (listen here)