over nine thousand?!

It's been a while since I got annoyed enough to bother with actually writing up a response to an article, but this one was worthy.

http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2008/04/17/Opinion/Professors.Dont.Need.To.Teach.Time.Management-3331462.shtml

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Deborah Bloom’s “Professors don’t need to teach time management” article in Thursday’s Emerald reflects the immature selfishness that pervades our culture and the UO.
“If I want to pay thousands of dollars a year to mess around and be irresponsible, then that is my own perogative [sic].” It’s funny that she would use a term more related to privilege than autonomy (and misspell it to boot).

There are too many people at this school that treat classes as an inconvenience and intrusion into their social lives rather than the job that they should be. Many of these students are freshmen, making their attitude somewhat forgivable because the transition between high school (little more than babysitting) and college is difficult. The author sounds like one of these students, which probably means she’s taking lower division classes. Lower division classes are generally overbooked and full of problems because they are intended to weed out the slackers, idiots, and immature kids that are here wasting mommy and daddy’s/the government’s money to party and “learn about themselves”. They’ve seen little of the real world, they have a lack of financial accountability, and they aren’t used to the demands of critical thinking, so they become distracted with the freedoms of college, flunk out, and leave. That’s why freshman classes have mandatory attendance, copious amounts of busywork, and pre-major blocks of virtually useless classes that are run like a kindergarten—the people that can’t follow the rules and learn to learn drop out before they become a nuisance to the upperclassmen. The ones that develop responsibility and diligence move on.

If instructors don’t require attendance, then you get the same credit for being absent as the people that make the effort to show up, no matter how much they hate being there. By the reasoning laid out in the article, assuming that I’m able to keep up with the class, I should get the same A grade in a class for having barbeques and hanging out at the mall as the people who go to class every day. That doesn’t seem logical. The issue of distractions is not limited to the people who would rather be somewhere else. Even the students who come to class without being forced are distracting and annoying. The students dragging in 10 minutes late slurping their coffees and blasting their iPods because 11 am is sooooo eaaarly for a class are just as bad as the ones that are texting out of boredom. From the guy sniffling and refusing to blow his nose to the girl eating a smelly sandwich in the back, every student in a class has the potential to be a distraction, whether it is smacking their gum, wearing too much perfume, breathing with a whistle in their nose, typing on their laptops, or rolling their eyes and sighing at the teacher because they already “know everything.”

You’re not the only one here, and everyone hasn’t come from the same place as you. The sooner you realize that, the better off everyone will be. If paying thousands of dollars every year to be here is a ticket to do whatever you want, then they have every right to draw anime in their notebooks and text their friends. Everyone is paying thousands of dollars to be here, just like you. Maybe that guy who is sleeping in class is doing so because he has an egocentric roommate who pays thousands of dollars a year to party all night. Or maybe he’s sleeping in class because he has to work 40 hours a week on the swing shift and he’s so dead tired he can’t stay awake. I offer that suggestion because I’ve been there. That is time management—that is being the adult that you’re supposed to be when you get to college, not complaining that things are unbearable because you can’t sleep in an extra hour or drive to the coast to party due to the obligation you have to do your job as a student—attend class.

College prepares you for real life—skip work a couple times to “jet off to the hot springs” and see how long you have a job. Start thinking about someone besides yourself for a change. That empty seat is one that could have gone to someone who actually wanted to be there. If you’re taking the class because you absolutely have to for a university requirement, go to class, sit down and shut up, and deal with the fact that once again, you’re not the only one in the world. You will still find mandatory attendance and annoyances in upper division courses—and indeed the rest of your life—but you will also find critical thinking and discussions from people that really want to be there and actually care about the material.

If you think school is anything but teaching to meet standards, you’ve already been skipping too much. Writing for example—you have to write a certain amount of words to pass, some standard likely set down by some board of old people who are out of touch with reality. You can pad your papers with liberal “very” usage and add other fluff, or you can take the time, effort, and responsibility for your education to write a real quality piece. It’s not the instructor’s job to make you do that—at this level, it’s your job as a student to take the initiative to develop past rote memorization on your own.

Similarly, you can’t be taught critical thinking—it’s something you develop through the exercises, readings, and discussions that you’re missing by not being in class. “Someone taking notes for you” is not a substitute for your actual presence and interaction. If you already have those skills and you can skip every class and get straight As, take the responsibility to challenge and better yourself by taking honors courses.

Don’t get me wrong. I find it ridiculous to be forced to attend an art class 6 hours a week when I can learn more in an hour on the internet and my learning style favors independent work. But at the same time, I find it depressing when half the class is missing and we end up having a weak discussion about a subject that would otherwise be interesting. I find it frustrating to have to spend half of a 50 minute class playing catchup for all the people who couldn’t inconvenience their busy lives to come to class. Your struggling to catch up after missing class isn’t about just you, you’re inconveniencing everyone there. Teachers that give you a grade penalty for missing classes are holding you accountable for your actions and treating you like an adult.

Unfortunately it is the more vocal percentage of our culture that becomes representative of a group. The guy shouting about Jesus on the corner is more noticeable and more memorable than the quiet religious guy down the street. People that read articles like this in the Emerald or hear half-baked arguments from students about why they should pass after missing half the term see a spoiled “me me me” mentality as the average student rather than the ones with valid reasons for wanting to miss an occasional class, and that’s why they will continue with the policy. Should we have some leeway for the occasional sick or even playday? Of course, and most professors already cut students enough slack to let them miss a few days of class with no penalty. Those engaging and interesting teachers that don’t take attendance know that it shows in your work when you’re not coming to class, and they will treat you accordingly.

If you really dislike a policy, take the initiative, responsibility, and use some independent thinking to start writing letters or petitions to make some change. Write an email to professors asking them to enforce their no-cell phones policy or raise whatever issues are bothering you. They shouldn’t have to be babysitters, but they should have control and authority over their classrooms. If you’re a student that shows up regularly and participates, you’ll be taken far more seriously.

Try going to class next week. Try going to class the rest of the term.

Congratulations on your first step towards growing up.