Quantity over quality

Some time last year, a friend of mine said something that really struck a chord. In the middle of a discussion on the tendencies of Princetonians, my companion summarized, "Princeton students are very good at working but not very good at thinking."

I have had some time to process these words and have realized that the more I ponder them, the more revealing they seem to be in describing how we conduct our education here at Princeton.

Critiquing the lack of intellectualism at Princeton is certainly nothing new. To say that Princeton is completely anti-intellectual would be an exaggeration. Intellectualism does have a presence on campus. However, rather than flooding the campus, intellectualism pops up in transient bubbles existing briefly before bursting under the forces that undermine its permanent establishment.

Which brings me back to this statement about working and thinking. We are amazingly diligent workers. Come across any Princetonian on campus and the conversation that ensues usually begins with a laundry list of all the work that must completed by daybreak. Who here lives without a permanent to-do list in their mind — a paper to edit, a problem set to start, a midterm to cram for? We get so good at this lifestyle that we fill each and every second of our lives with productivity. We cannot afford to stop moving. Idleness is frowned upon. It makes us feel guilty.

But how much of this work really involves conscious thinking? Look back at that last chapter you just read, that last problem you solved or that last test you took. How much of that productivity was the result of a thorough understanding and analysis of the subject, and how much of it was simply a regurgitation and reassembly of someone else's thinking? Has the acquisition of this knowledge changed or affected you permanently, or is it forgotten immediately after that Honor Code signature?

The problem behind all this is that thinking takes time. It requires us to slow our busy lives and to ask questions that might not have readily available answers. Thinking is incongruous with our existence because it does not squeeze neatly into our time-obsessed lifestyle. As a result, we often avoid thinking not because we are incapable of it but because it simply is not a productive or efficient way of spending our time. Due to these perceived inefficiencies, thinking as an active method of learning is often passed up in favor of more productive but passive forms of learning. We choose instead to absorb knowledge, leaving it unchallenged and undigested. It is as if we are completing our education just for the sake of completing it.

To attribute this phenomenon entirely on the disposition of Princetonians would be wrong. As much as this is a product of our ambitious nature, it is also propagated by the pressures of this institution. The truth is, this school greatly emphasizes quantity over quality. Just think of the hundreds of pages of reading you need to complete this week or the amount of material you need to memorize for your next test. Do professors, learned scholars themselves, really believe that we can internalize over 200 pages of reading a week? Do they not understand that even if all this work is completed, it is usually going to be performed in a perfunctory manner? In my years here, I have rarely come across a professor who realizes this compromise and as result has chosen quality over quantity, preferring less work in favor of deeper learning.

We are very good at deceiving ourselves. We believe that simply being at the best undergraduate institution means that we are getting the best undergraduate education. We believe that if we keep working, we are learning. But working is not the same as learning and is certainly not the same as thinking. What we need to tell ourselves is that taking time away from working simply to think can be just as productive, if not more. We are, after all, at a place that prides itself on its thinkers. Kyle Meng is a civil and environmental engineering major from Chappaqua, N.Y. He can be reached at kmeng@princeton.edu.