Being in college can be truly difficult. I suppose that’s why they don’t just hand out diplomas. There is so much to learn and so little time in order to do so. And if that’s not enough, there are deadlines and grades on top of that.
I understand that sometimes college has to be difficult. I get that. There are classes that take more time and memorization than others, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. They can’t all be “blow off classes”.
What I have a problem with, though, are those professors that assign homework just because they want to assign homework. They consider it a title of honor to hear that students have been talking behind their backs, or that people barely survive their courses. There’s work that you learn from, and then there’s busy work. I get a lot of busy work.
Students already have so much on their plates. With such a large percentage of our students being athletes, there are a multitude of students balancing homework, practices and games. And believe me, we know that some professors hate the emphasis that is placed on sports here, but how else are students going to pay for outrageous tuition costs?
Then, there are non-traditional students like myself who have to work in order to maintain a stable lifestyle. Without a college degree, nojob pays a lot, so it takes quite a bit of time to gather enough money to survive off of.
There is no time to be doing anything that won’t contribute directly to our sports, our financial well being, or the learning process. Period.
There are certainly students that face sleep deprivation because they are slackers, staying up all night to play video games and watching Netflix.
However, some of the students walking around campus looking like the living dead can attribute their sleep deprivation to unnecessary busy work. They have finished all of the homework that truly contributes to the learning experience, and now they have to complete the busy work.
According to the article “Significant Sleep Deprivation And Stress Among College Students, USA” on medicalnewstoday.com, “On weeknights, 20 percent of students stay up all night at least once a month and 35 percent stay up until 3 a.m. at least once a week. “ As a result, “twelve percent of poor sleepers miss class three or more times a month or fall asleep in class.”
To top it all off, sometimes it’s the very end of the semester before we get any of this work back. If we have deadlines, why don’t professors? And to be honest, I’m pretty sure some of the professors don’t even read my work.
So enough of the busy work, the assignments that are copied directly off the internet, the attempts to make a lower level class as senior level courses or graduate work.
There are times when it’s okay for professors to require a lot (for example, when they are teaching a 400 or 500 level course—but even those should have limits), but sometimes, professors are just being bullies. There are ways to promote learning without destroying peoples’ lives in the process.
The professors who have taught me the most have not been the professors who gave me the largest quantity of homework, but those who have given me the highest quality assignments. These are the teachers and professors who have given me the tools I need to see the world both academically, and through my own eyes. These are the professors who have taught me to truly learn.