Returning to college has been an interesting experience in many ways, but one of the things that has been a constant source of bewilderment for me is how some of the other students manage to do so poorly in what are, by my estimation, fairly easy classes. I understand the completely unmotivated party kids who never show up for class—well, no I don’t understand them but I understand why they are getting Ds and Fs. It’s the ones that are in class who still manage to barely pass, who are relieved to see they got a 61% on an exam because it means they didn’t fail—it’s these students who baffle me.
Surely they can’t all just be that stupid. In a class where the entire grade is based on exam scores, where you don’t even have to turn in papers or other assignments, it seems like just showing up for class and absorbing the material should be enough to get most students better grades than that.
I’ve been watching. I’ve been listening. And what I’ve discovered is sad and rather frightening.
I’ll use my history class as an example. This is a basic world history class—nothing covered too in-depth, nothing really difficult. It’s a required class for every student at the university. There are about 80 students in the class. The easiest group of low achievers to pick out are the loudmouths in the back of the room. I’m seriously considering adding a tranquilizer dart gun to my collection of things I habitually bring to class, because these idiots really piss me off. They carry on a nonstop chatter in the back of the room that is distracting enough that the professor frequently has to stop her lecture to ask them to be quiet. Next time they get really loud, I’m tempted to stand up and say “would you like me to bring milk and cookies to your social event back there?” It’s no surprise that these assclowns guffaw and clap each other on the back in congratulatory camaraderie at their D-minus exam scores.
Then there are the laptop users. Now I myself am a laptop user. I take notes on my laptop, largely because it takes a whole forensic team to decipher any meaning out of my handwriting, and I also from time to time will Google a person or event that is being discussed in the lecture in order to get a little more information, or to see a picture or map, or what have you. From where I sit I can see the screens of about 4-5 other laptops. There is the girl who spends the whole class chatting in AIM. There is the guy who plays some online poker game. There is the guy who spends the entire hour and 45 minutes poking around on myspace.com (I can barely stand it for 2 minutes—how he manages it I’ll never know). The ones actually taking class notes are in the distinct minority.
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— 05:23:32 PM
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04/13/2007 05:19 PM Reply
You are 100% correct. I graduated in 80 and can tell you, even back then, they didn’t teach that stuff. I was never taught how to study or take notes. Needless to say, now that I’m in the big world and need to take notes at meeting, I don’t do a very good job.
And just think, all the states seem to be reducing the amount of money they give to schools while trying to implement graduation standards. I think in 10 years our senior classes are going to be 5 times larger than they are now, and a lot of those kids are going to be 20 somethings.
07/01/2007 03:41 PM Reply
My first course in Psych (one of my majors) presented an instructor whose very first question to the class supplied the answer to my learning how to study. It was not anything I had been taught in any school up until that time. So simple, but so pregnant with meaning to me: “Why are you going to this university?”
The answer, after many of us tried to win the door prize, was this: “You are here to learn to think. All the rest will follow in due course.”
A very wise man.