To be quite frank, the
most promising part of coming to college was the fact that I would be escaping
my hometown, where over half of the student body has absolutely no regard for
the education system. My friends and I would complain everyday about the disrespect
that we were surrounded by and literally counted down the days until our
graduation ceremony. When I was accepted to the University of Wisconsin-
Whitewater, I thought to myself, “This is a chance to be surrounded by people
with different ideas, but share one common goal, take education seriously and
be rewarded in the future because of it.” Although the classmates and friends
that I choose to surround myself with absolutely share the same goal as I do,
there are a select number of individuals who act with utter disrespect towards
their professors and this college in general.
One thing that I absolutely cannot stand is academic
dishonestly. In my Statistics class, we had an exam that we took over the
course of two days. The exam happened to be found online, so many students who
most likely would have never gotten high scores, ended up cheating and
spreading the news around that the exam was found online. My teacher realized
what had happened right away, thus, everyone was required to take a new exam.
This made me extremely angry, because although it is fair that everyone should
take the same exam, why should the students who were academically honest have
to be punished as well?
Another student I know in the class talks over the
professor during the lectures, and make snarky comments directed towards the
professor. Our professor has an accent, which can be difficult to understand at
times, however if you pay attention and remain focused, it is not hard to
understand what his main points are at all. At the end of the first two class
periods this student claimed that our professor does not know how to teach
properly. NO! He knows how to teach and it’s not hard to understand him either.
The reason you have no idea what is going on is because you are making fun of
his accent all class, and are disrespecting his profession and life’s work in
mathematics.This is not high school, and I don’t know why such people think
that since they are “adults”, they can be so arrogant and condescending towards
those who are only trying to help them become functional adults.
Another type of
student that irks me is the type that does not bother to show up to their
classes, and attends school mainly to party. I have met multiple students who
do not seem to care about the money that they are wasting by not attending
class. It’s not my money that is being wasted, it is theirs, but it bothers me
to see how they simply do not care. The significance of going to college is to
do well and learn in order to get a decent paying job and to live comfortably.
What they do not realize is that they can fully dedicate themselves to learning
as well as have fun. That’s why weekends were invented, guys! The fact that
makes me more irritated is that some of these students will either drop out or
be academically suspended because of their lack of attendance affecting their
grade point averages. This means that scholarships, grants, and loans are being
wasted on these students because they did not care enough about their education.
In college, you cannot have your mother call in sick for you if you do not want
to go to class. Some of us will never grow up or move on from our teenage
selves, but it is time to assume responsibility.
"The significance of college is to do well and learn in order to get a decent paying job and to live comfortably."
ReplyDeleteI do share your thoughts about the types of students you described (and I was a math major, so we probably had a few of the same professors), and I feel the quote I shared from your passage may hold what is a major factor in this problem. I believe many students care so much about the job and money that they care much more about the degree versus the education that is gained on the way to receiving it. Don't get me wrong, the degree is the end goal and it's not a bad thing to "keep your eye on the ball," but when students are willing to not care about the education, only worrying about grades, taking shortcuts and being dishonest, they care only about the end and nothing about the middle. These students would probably have no qualms about skipping class and receiving a degree for free.
Another few points I thought I would bring up is I wonder if the added pressure of getting a degree is leading to numerous more students who wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) have normally applied now going to college. I wonder if the "weeding out" (for lack of better words) process is now happening less, and colleges are receiving more students who don't like school and would rather not be there all due to pressure. Also, I think students going straight from high school to college might be a contributing factor. Many schools try to push their students straight to college with no time off, claiming if they take any break they will "never go to college," which I disagree with personally. I would recommend a year or so off of school to most students just to get some work experience and money, as well as calm down and mentally prepare for college, which many high school students do not do, and they are the ones easy to pick out when they first arrive.
So I overall agree with you and give you sympathy. I feel I was pretty lucky in my time at UW-Whitewater, but I did have a few classmates who were less than desirable. I hope it gets better, good luck!