| Show L. L Are Schools Teaching Too Much Too Quickly k o i by Linda Unda Fabert I have a friend mend who is currently attending the U of U to earn his degree in Mechanical Engineering According to my friend mend one of his instructors gave the students a problem to solve and when asked how to go about solving it told his students your problem You figure it out Trial and Error what a way to learn leam Fortunately we at arent aren't faced with that problem We are faced with the same same problem as every other college in the United States however and that is that there is a tremendous amount of information to be learned in a short amount of time I for one would dearly love to be able to slow down the pace a little Im I'm bucking for entrance into the Guinness Book of World Wor d Records under the heading of Most Quarters Spent in inthe inthe the Same Math Class That's not exactly what I had in mind for my claim to fame The point is we are required to learn in one quarter of college what we would have taken one one year to learn in high school The reality is we arent aren't in high school any more Bingo Were We're big kids now Jacob a professor at Brown University wrote an essay entitled The Speech the Graduates o j t. t i 1 r lv fl J b r L f 4 0 Didn't Hear He may have been right when he said we we created an altogether forgiving world in which whatever slight effort you gave was all aU that was demanded In quoting Prof Carter Daniel of Rutgers University he continued College has deprived you of adequate preparation for the last 50 years It has failed you by being easy free forgiving attentive comfortable interesting unchallenging fun Professor was complaining complain complain- ing about having to pass students that hadn't earned passing grades just to get them through school but buthe's buthe's buthe's hes he's also talking about coddling adults To an extent I have to agree with Prof though In my personal experiences my instructors instructors instructors tors have always been forgiving when I or my work was late and they've all gone the extra mile for forme forme forme me when I was having trouble with witha a concept This This campus campus is extremely comfortable because Ive I've come to know so many people faculty and students so well they've become like family to me In just about every class class' Ive I've had theres there's been a lot of reading but Iv Ive I've also h had d instructors t rs that covered most of the reading material in class lectures so that if I was doing the reading and attending class attending class I 1 was as getting the same material two twp times A case in point Biology I am not a science-minded science person and never have been There was a tremendous amount of what I thought was boring reading I dont don't like the study study-of chemistry genetics and metabolisms and never will but butI I read and I read I studied my study guides and studied my study guides We Ne progressed through the course at the speed of light To make a long story short I passed the class by one point I didn't care if I ever heard so much as one biology term again as long as I lived I did all my memorization four quarters ago and now it can be forgotten but its it's not I guess Mr Hampton did a good job because I can still explain the primary seco secondary dary and tertiary structures of a protein although I 1 probably wont won't ever need to use it Actually we are fortunate As a arule arule arute rule rute we get everything twice once in reading o once ce in lecture If were we're given study guides that makes three times as many chances to learn the same material If we study continually all aU through the course were we're not doing only memorization were we're learning and we will retain much of what were we're being taught The instructors are always willing to help students and that helps to compensate a little They do their part the rest is up to us Its It's extremely paced fast-paced but in order to graduate before were we're eligible for Social Security it has to be It isn't easy but then few things in Life are Editors Editor's Note Around the campus there are suggestion boxes for Questions Comments Suggestions Suggestions Suggestions or Letters to the Editor We try to check these all once a week and try to reply to as many as possible We welcome rebuttals to editorials |
