Gettin' Down With Don
Don Seipel
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: Lifestlyes
Still others just rant about it, which is how this whole issue came up
in the first place.
One professor recently wondered aloud what college students imagine happens when an employee arrives at work unprepared.
Obviously, if such a situation existed, the employee would face some sort of discipline or even termination. On the other hand, many jobs don't actually work like that.
Although teaching is a notable exception, many full-time workers are not expected to take their work home with them, and they are certainly not given work specifically to be done at home so that it may be presented to their boss the following day.
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask a student to read a few chapters from a book in order to prepare themselves for class, but it is unreasonable to assume that it is a skill that will be vital to the student's future job.
Especially in higher-level classes, students should have a pretty good idea about what is expected of a worker in their chosen field.
Does it make more sense for a chemist to read a philosophy text than for a philosopher to mix chemicals?
Regardless of your answer to that question, this problem continues across the university. What is the source?
I think we can look at the annual freshman orientation reading to rule out the idea that this apathy is bred during our time here.
Capital students begin their college career with an assignment: to read a book selected by the administration and write some sort of response to it.
I freely admit that I neither read the book I was given nor wrote anything about it. In my case, I recognized that such an assignment could not possibly reflect on me in terms of a grade because I was not yet in any classes.
Since the book didn't catch my attention in the first few chapters, I deemed it unworthy of my time and prepared myself to accept the consequences of failing to even make a real attempt at what was at that point the only college paper I had ever been assigned.
in the first place.
One professor recently wondered aloud what college students imagine happens when an employee arrives at work unprepared.
Obviously, if such a situation existed, the employee would face some sort of discipline or even termination. On the other hand, many jobs don't actually work like that.
Although teaching is a notable exception, many full-time workers are not expected to take their work home with them, and they are certainly not given work specifically to be done at home so that it may be presented to their boss the following day.
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask a student to read a few chapters from a book in order to prepare themselves for class, but it is unreasonable to assume that it is a skill that will be vital to the student's future job.
Especially in higher-level classes, students should have a pretty good idea about what is expected of a worker in their chosen field.
Does it make more sense for a chemist to read a philosophy text than for a philosopher to mix chemicals?
Regardless of your answer to that question, this problem continues across the university. What is the source?
I think we can look at the annual freshman orientation reading to rule out the idea that this apathy is bred during our time here.
Capital students begin their college career with an assignment: to read a book selected by the administration and write some sort of response to it.
I freely admit that I neither read the book I was given nor wrote anything about it. In my case, I recognized that such an assignment could not possibly reflect on me in terms of a grade because I was not yet in any classes.
Since the book didn't catch my attention in the first few chapters, I deemed it unworthy of my time and prepared myself to accept the consequences of failing to even make a real attempt at what was at that point the only college paper I had ever been assigned.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
John
posted 11/20/08 @ 6:30 PM EST
Don,
You'd be wise to squeeze every morsel of knowledge out of your undergraduate education as you can -- and every nickel out of it, too.
You will desperately need it when you get into the job market. (Continued…)
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