Journal for Week 5
It’s no secret that my entire college education has been earned in the “non-traditional” manner. As a matter of fact, the only college class that I ever took during the daytime was at my local community college, and it was a Business Calculus class that I absolutely HAD to take. (It was an amazing class that showed the very Useful Nature of calculus in the every day world.)
I’ve also attended more than one “higher learning” institution. First, the local community college, then the University of Kentucky for some correspondence, Western Kentucky University (extension office in my hometown), Sullivan University (Ft. Knox, where I earned my B.S.), and onward to Sullivan University in Louisville for the beginning of my MBA/MS-MIT, UMUC here in Germany, and finally IU online for my Master’s in Adult Education. I guess I wrote all of that to show that these opinions aren’t based on isolated events that happened in some distant school, somewhere in the U.S.
The Boy is also taking college classes. Trust me when I tell you it makes for interesting weekends at our house (our study habits will be the subject of a future posting). I was thinking today about how rigorous my high school study habits were – I think basically because I was terrified I’d flunk out of college unless I had a grip on how to study, how to take notes, and how to be a good student.
I’ve always been a good student. I’ve always been a good student, even when other people in the class were irritating and annoying. I started thinking today about how various people in my classes over the years have really just not been good students. One of the things about being a non-traditional student is that you are one because of other responsibilities: work, kids, whatever. Everyone in that class understands that chances are, the only thing you have to do ISN’T your homework. But does that mean that teachers should go “easy” on students simply because the student is “busy” with other things? We’d been here 6 months when The Boy’s NCOIC commented about how he’d never had a Soldier pass the German class that was offered through UMUC, and was shocked that I took it. He was shocked even more when I received an “A” in the class. In all honesty, I worked harder on my German (I think it was a 100 level class) than I did on the last 600-level class I had in my Master’s program.
The Boy has been experiencing that with his current on-campus class. What started out with almost 40 students now has approximately 25. Why? Because the class is hard. And they have jobs. And the A’s aren’t being handed out like candy.
I have to admit, the online program I’m participating in now doesn’t seem to have that same negative sort of attitude. I’m really curious if it’s because IU operates on the semester time-frame, while colleges like Sullivan and UMUC operate on the condensed “intensive” schedule of 11 weeks per class, therefore giving more time for assignments?
I’m curious. What do you think?
posted by The Girl @ 6:53 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I don't know...I have always been a good student too, and the same college that The Boy is attending is kicking my butt.
Not only are As not being handed out like candy, but they are almost impossible to get (I say *almost* because I've gotten a few of them!). In fact, one of my current professors has given me a failing grade for the last three weeks of participation (which is a part of online learning that I'm totally bitter about) because I haven't participated in the lame group discussions 15-20 times per week "like some of the other students" have.
I think getting As at the private school I went to freshman year was much easier than the online college I attend now. Go figure...
I was always a good student too. At least I was until the second half of my Sophomore year when I got completely burned out. Then of course I got married and my "break" from school wound up being a lot longer (10 years) than I expected.
I'm now working on completing my degree completely online. I have to agree with Erin about the participation factor. We have to participate a minimum of 4 days a week, with about 3-4 posts a day. And they have to be posts that add to the subject at hand and the class discussion. I didn't always participate every class meeting in a traditional classroom...so it's a bit challenging for me to make sure I meet my requirements.
I've also found that I have to be much more disciplined now than I did back then too. My classes are only 5 weeks long, so it is a pretty intense 5 weeks in regards to information and assignments. In some ways it's good that I have less time to complete my assignments...less time to procrastinate!
I think a real issue in our society today is that kids who come from middle class families think that going to college is the natural thing to do, and that as soon as they get that degree they'll make mega-bucks. And when it turns out to be harder than they expected, they're frustrated. And when they graduate with that degree and then can't find a job, they're frustrated. College is not at all elite anymore, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in some ways, but everyone seems to think that he should be able to go to college and get good grades just for putting out some effort. But maybe college isn't for everyone.
By the way, I also think that being a good student doesn't necessarily mean a person is smart. I was an excellent student, and I learned to play the Game Of School very well. But I don't think it really taught me to be that smart or to think critically. I was just good at school, like someone can be good at basketball or welding. There are some people who are smart but who aren't good at the skill of school. Steven den Beste is one of the smartest thinkers I've ever encountered, and he dropped out of school because it wasn't for him. Einstein hated school and routinely did poorly. And on the flip side, our high school co-valedictorian got a 4.0 but had no idea how to navigate from her house to the mall.
As an English teacher, I constantly had to try to figure out how to grade people, how to balance effort with actual talent. Some kids were decent writers but never tried to get any better. And others were terrible writers who turned in rough draft after rough draft and tried to improve. So do you grade based on how much someone improves from the first day to the last day, or do you simply grade on how well they write in the end? I always had a hard time justifying my grades that way.
For whatever this whole rant is worth. I'm not sure it has anything to do with your post :) Sorry.
Actually if you just copy Sarah's post in here you pretty much get what I think.
I wasn't the best student mostly because I chose to drink beer and skip class. I also knew what I wanted to major in so I found most General Ed requirements boring and those classes brought my GPA down. I am an auditory learner so when I went ot class I never had to crack a book. Saved me a ton of money not actually buying books.
Now that I am almost finished with my masters completely online, I find that its actually hard for me because I can't go to lecture and listen. I tend to zone out reading other student's comments because they are trying to write a story that matches exactly what the teacher wants to read. I have had to recondition myself to read versus go to lecture but that took a little time to get used to.
What I am good at with non-traditional schooling is that I seem to write well and can sift the important information out easily. That makes the 30 page papers almost all of my clases have required not so difficult to write.
As for the difference between semester and quarter - I like the quarter system better as it got me through the boring materials or prof quicker. Oh and I am a UMUC student and my classes are a full semester - UMUC has various program formats.
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