This is an American perspective but I think this could be an Anglo phenomenon so let me take a crack at it.
When I was brought up, the image of what a successful student was, was a very well rounded one. The perfect student was a diligent worker in all courses and always an athlete. Athletics was very very tied to the image of being a proper student because basically athletics = team and team = learning to work with others to overcome challenges and work towards a goal + being physically fit.
This is the gist of it, it's a bit hard to explain without living it. Also there is a religious aspect thrown in because America.
This was the image of the perfect young adult given to me by Boy Scouts and the image my private school friends were given by their schools. At my public school though everything was a bit watered down as we got far less development attention than private school kids would get.
For non-Americans reading: private school = good, public school = bad, in terms of education in the US(usually). I know this is flipped in some places.
> when I was brought up, the image of what a successful student was, was a very well rounded one.
I think this idea is dead, or close to it. Almost all the people I knew in college were there for a simple reason: to get a piece of paper that says they can now participate in the work force. Being educated was more of a side effect.
Plenty of people complain about gen eds or other requirements for degrees that are not explicitly related to the major.
> For non-Americans reading: private school = good, public school = bad,
This really depends on the university, the professors there, and the field. My school (USC, no, the other one) is #1 for international business, etc.
Athletics is extremely emphasized, though. I understand that colleges have to discriminate somehow to give people scholarships, and that sports make an insane amount of money for colleges, but it always struck me as odd that getting a full ride for being excellent at a sport is even a thing.
To me, that seems like an odd culture for universities to encourage/perpetuate, given that most top professors at top universities are unlikely to be particularly athletic, and the word "intellectual" is often used as almost an antonym of "athlete".
When I was brought up, the image of what a successful student was, was a very well rounded one. The perfect student was a diligent worker in all courses and always an athlete. Athletics was very very tied to the image of being a proper student because basically athletics = team and team = learning to work with others to overcome challenges and work towards a goal + being physically fit.
This is the gist of it, it's a bit hard to explain without living it. Also there is a religious aspect thrown in because America.
This was the image of the perfect young adult given to me by Boy Scouts and the image my private school friends were given by their schools. At my public school though everything was a bit watered down as we got far less development attention than private school kids would get.
For non-Americans reading: private school = good, public school = bad, in terms of education in the US(usually). I know this is flipped in some places.