Long-Term

I am recently an instructor in one university in my hometown. Teaching in a higher institution is my passion and I'm more than happy to be part-time lecturer in here. But, times do not pass by without me observing some things about Malaysian students. We (I mean, including me too when I was a student) have this lack of ability to see a long-term result of certain actions that we do.

Take, for example, doing assignments given by your instructor. When I asked my students to do their first assignment, I saw various behaviors across students. Some did it wonderfully, some were trying really hard, which was appreciated. But some gave a lot of excuses - the "dog ate my homework" kind of excuse. Some that they gave was that the file couldn't be opened, and that they left the file in a computer at home. Yes, I know, things happen, but they happen specifically because you're reckless!

Not to mention, there were a worrying number of plagiaristic papers. My theory is that they thought that this was an unimportant assignment, and that I would not notice that they took information from an article over the internet word-by-word. Bottomline, they thought that their action had no real consequences. Of course no real consequences, at least not now. But there will be long-term consequences.

What are the consequences? First, assignments are a way for you to challenge your intellectual. Rather than being spoonfed by your lecturer, and rather than memorizing the stuffs you learn in class and pour it all out blindly in the exam, assignments ask you to think and apply the knowledge that you learn. So, if you do not challenge your mental capacity in order to produce an acceptable product, then how will you perform well in your job when you are in a workplace? Because of this kind of attitude when they were at schools, there are a lot of frowning public servants behind the counter, or bureaucrats who hate people, or just simply an employer who does "just enough."

Then, because you are not performing well, you never get a promotion and you never see the brighter future than half of your dream. No, no, I'm not talking about knowledge because you can obtain knowledge even if you are in a workplace if you haven't done it in school. I'm talking about your attitude. I'm talking about your perspective in leading your own self to move further than the position you are in now.

So, please, fix your attitude when it comes to this. If you don't think it'll not bite you now, it'll sure come to show itself in the future. Fix it before it's too late.