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    How To Live Wisely

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    The document discusses exercises that help college freshmen reflect on how to live wisely during their time in college. The exercises prompt students to 1) compare their goals for how they want to spend time with how they actually spend it, 2) consider whether they want to specialize in one area or be well-rounded, 3) identify their core values and how to handle conflicts between values, 4) consider whether they want to pursue success and impact or a simpler, happier life, and 5) reflect on what they have learned. Participating students find the exercises remarkably insightful and report that the discussions help them make the most of their college experience.

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    How To Live Wisely

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    Hân Bảo
    63 views6 pages
    The document discusses exercises that help college freshmen reflect on how to live wisely during their time in college. The exercises prompt students to 1) compare their goals for how they want to spend time with how they actually spend it, 2) consider whether they want to specialize in one area or be well-rounded, 3) identify their core values and how to handle conflicts between values, 4) consider whether they want to pursue success and impact or a simpler, happier life, and 5) reflect on what they have learned. Participating students find the exercises remarkably insightful and report that the discussions help them make the most of their college experience.

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    How to Live Wisely

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    The document discusses exercises that help college freshmen reflect on how to live wisely during their time in college. The exercises prompt students to 1) compare their goals for how they want to spend time with how they actually spend it, 2) consider whether they want to specialize in one area or be well-rounded, 3) identify their core values and how to handle conflicts between values, 4) consider whether they want to pursue success and impact or a simpler, happier life, and 5) reflect on what they have learned. Participating students find the exercises remarkably insightful and report that the discussions help them make the most of their college experience.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    63 views6 pages

    How To Live Wisely

    Uploaded by

    Hân Bảo
    The document discusses exercises that help college freshmen reflect on how to live wisely during their time in college. The exercises prompt students to 1) compare their goals for how they want to spend time with how they actually spend it, 2) consider whether they want to specialize in one area or be well-rounded, 3) identify their core values and how to handle conflicts between values, 4) consider whether they want to pursue success and impact or a simpler, happier life, and 5) reflect on what they have learned. Participating students find the exercises remarkably insightful and report that the discussions help them make the most of their college experience.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 6

    How to Live Wisely

    By RICHARD J. LIGHTJULY 31, 2015

    THE NEW YORK TIMES

    Photo
    Credit
    James Yang for The New York Times

    Imagine you are Dean for a Day. What is one actionable


    change you would implement to enhance the college
    experience on campus?
    I have asked students this question for years. The answers
    can be eye-opening. A few years ago, the responses began to
    move away from “tweak the history course” or “change the
    ways labs are structured.” A different commentary, about
    learning to live wisely, has emerged.
    What does it mean to live a good life? What about a
    productive life? How about a happy life? How might I think
    about these ideas if the answers conflict with one another?
    And how do I use my time here at college to build on the
    answers to these tough questions?
    A number of campuses have recently started to offer an
    opportunity for students to grapple with these questions. On
    my campus, Harvard, a small group of faculty members and
    deans created a noncredit seminar called “Reflecting on Your
    Life.” The format is simple: three 90-minute discussion
    sessions for groups of 12 first-year students, led by faculty
    members, advisers or deans. Well over 100 students
    participate each year.
    Here are five exercises that students find particularly
    engaging. Each is designed to help freshmen identify their
    goals and reflect systematically about various aspects of their
    personal lives, and to connect what they discover to what
    they actually do at college.
    1. For the first exercise, we ask students to make a list of how
    they want to spend their time at college.
    What matters to you? This might be going
    to class, studying, spending time with
    close friends, perhaps volunteering in the
    off-campus community or reading books
    not on any course’s required reading list.
    Then students make a list of how they
    actually spent their time, on average, each
    day over the past week and match the two
    lists.
    Finally, we pose the question: How well do your
    commitments actually match your goals?
    A few students find a strong overlap
    between the lists. The majority don’t.
    They are stunned and dismayed to
    discover they are spending much of their
    precious time on activities they don’t
    value highly. The challenge is how to align
    your time commitments to reflect your
    personal convictions.
    2. Deciding on a major can be amazingly difficult. One
    student in our group was having a hard
    time choosing between government and
    science. How was she spending her spare
    time? She described being active in the
    Institute of Politics, running the Model
    U.N. and writing regularly for The
    Political Review. The discussion leader
    noted that she hadn’t mentioned the word
    “lab” in her summary. “Labs?” replied the
    student, looking incredulous. “Why would
    I mention labs when talking about my
    spare time?” Half an hour after the
    session, the group leader got an email
    thanking him for posing the question.
    3. I call this the Broad vs. Deep Exercise. If you could
    become extraordinarily good at one thing
    versus being pretty good at many things,
    which approach would you choose? We
    invite students to think about how to
    organize their college life to follow their
    chosen path in a purposeful way.

    4. In the Core Values Exercise, students are presented with a


    sheet of paper with about 25 words on it.
    The words include “dignity,” “love,”
    “fame,” “family,” “excellence,” “wealth”
    and “wisdom.” They are told to circle the
    five words that best describe their core
    values. Now, we ask, how might you deal
    with a situation where your core values
    come into conflict with one another?
    Students find this question particularly
    difficult. One student brought up his own
    personal dilemma: He wants to be a
    surgeon, and he also wants to have a large
    family. So his core values included the
    words “useful” and “family.” He said he
    worries a lot whether he could be a
    successful surgeon while also being a
    devoted father. Students couldn’t stop
    talking about this example, as many saw
    themselves facing a similar challenge.
    5. This exercise presents a parable of a happy fisherman
    living a simple life on a small island. The
    fellow goes fishing for a few hours every
    day. He catches a few fish, sells them to
    his friends, and enjoys spending the rest
    of the day with his wife and children, and
    napping. He couldn’t imagine changing a
    thing in his relaxed and easy life.
    A recent M.B.A. visits this island and
    quickly sees how this fisherman could
    become rich. He could catch more fish,
    start up a business, market the fish, open
    a cannery, maybe even issue an I.P.O.
    Ultimately he would become truly
    successful. He could donate some of his
    fish to hungry children worldwide and
    might even save lives.
    “And then what?” asks the fisherman.
    “Then you could spend lots of time with
    your family,” replies the visitor. “Yet you
    would have made a difference in the world.
    You would have used your talents, and fed
    some poor children, instead of just lying
    around all day.”
    238
    COMMENTS
    We ask students to apply this parable to their own lives. Is it
    more important to you to have little, accomplish little, yet be
    relaxed and happy and spend time with family? Or is it more
    important to you to work hard, use your talents, perhaps
    start a business, maybe even make the world a better place
    along the way?
    Typically, this simple parable leads to substantial
    disagreement. These discussions encourage first-year
    undergraduates to think about what really matters to them,
    and what each of us feels we might owe, or not owe, to the
    broader community — ideas that our students can capitalize
    on throughout their time at college.
    At the end of our sessions, I say to my group: “Tell me one
    thing you have changed your mind about this year,” and
    many responses reflect a remarkable level of introspection.
    Three years later, when we check in with participants, nearly
    all report that the discussions had been valuable, a step
    toward turning college into the transformational experience
    it is meant to be.
    Richard J. Light is a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and
    author of “Making the Most of College.”
    A version of this article appears in print on August 2, 2015, on page
    ED13 of Education Life with the headline: How To Live Wisely.

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