I got in a tiff with one of my professors today. She's requiring us to attend a poetry reading (not just any kind on any night, but special Bathhouse readings that she's a part of) for points in our class. Every single one falls on a Thursday night when I work. I'm not going to take off work to attend one of these because then I would be choosing my grade in my class, and not the means in which I pay for it.
Eastern is a commuter college. Yes, some people live in the dorms, but the majority of the school commutes and works a job. Or some students like me work two jobs to support themselves. To require that students take an extra two to three hours of their life outside of the classroom seems ridiculous to me. Sure, assigning it as extra credit would make sense because it's an EXTRAcurricular activity thus it deserves EXTRA credit.
Not only that, but the readings happen in a small room that fills up unless you get there early. That would require me to leave my job even sooner in just the hopes that I'll get a seat and if I don't, then I just wasted more than $20 plus gas money because I live 30 minutes away, so I'd have to pay gas there and back. I'm not sure if this is true, but what if there was a cover charge? That would be ridiculous.
If the readings had multiple options when it comes to times, it would be a little better, but I chose to take this class in the hour and fifteen minutes that I did because it's when I could fit it in. I have Monday nights after 6 off (which I won't soon because I'm starting a babysitting job) and Tuesday and Thursday mornings off. That's it. During those mornings, I'm usually scrambling to do my homework for my six classes. Yes, it's just 10 points, and yes I have over 100% in that class, but I wish professors would stop thinking that their classes are the center of my universe because I have a lot more on my mind than Creative Writing at this point in my life.
This reminds me of one of my daytime math classes that scheduled its tests on Wednesday evenings. (That was actually a kindness on the professor's part; it meant more time to work. Several of my math classes did it through the years.)
ReplyDeleteThe problem was that I had ANOTHER CLASS on Wednesday evenings that semester, but apparently I was the only person with a complication, so my protest was outvoted. (Point of interest: My classmates who had complications other nights were all for extracurriculars.)
I ended up having to beg the prof to let me take the tests during his office hours Thursday morning--amid the noise & interruptions of the bustling Math/CS offices--since I couldn't afford to miss my once-a-week evening class 4 times throughout the semester. Believe you me, my grade suffered for it.
~Hayfever
My writing professor did something similar. She required us to attend five writing workshops put on by the university outside of class. You couldn't just pick which five you wanted to do though, either. You had to go to the ones she picked for us, that only ran for so many weeks during the semester, and only during business hours. Are you kidding me? I tried telling her that I commute from 40 minutes away and work 40 hours a week just to pay for the gas to get here and the tuition that I don't have covered by loans. She basically said "tough shit" and told me if I didn't attend the workshops, I would be getting a C in the class. I had to take off a shift or show up late to work each time I had to go to one of these workshops. On top of that, they weren't even useful! They were basically a review of my high school english class! I essentially paid hundreds of dollars in lost wages and gas money to sit through five high school english classes at two hours per class. Some of these teachers have NO respect for the working student.
ReplyDelete^^Oh, wow, that's so not fair. I'm glad he let you take it during his office hours, but still...a nice quiet classroom would have been nice.
ReplyDelete^Wow, that's crazy too, Mary. I just wish there were better options than forcing a student to just MAKE time for outside things.