2008 Woodie Awards
Attendance policies pointless for some classes
Kaley Relaz
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Opinion
It's Friday morning when the alarm goes off for class. Perhaps still feeling the effects from last night, we look outside to see that it's raining. The next step in this morning routine for many college students would be to weigh the pros and cons of skipping class to drift back into a dream that was so rudely interrupted.
If we find ourselves in this situation and the scale is tipping toward biting the bullet and going to class, that decision should only be justified if we're legitimately going to miss something vital to our education, and not because we might lose attendance points.
Although I would call myself an advocate for Western Illinois University and have taken excellent classes with some amazing teachers, too large of a fraction of my classes overall have not met the standards of what I think a quality education should embody.
The one factor that has been consistently frustrating in uninspiring classes is when the teachers require attendance - some may call it job security.
We've all voiced or heard someone else with the complaint that since we are the ones essentially paying our teachers for our education, we should have the right to choose how often we attend our classes.
I understand that point of view, but I also understand that our teachers create attendance policies with our best interests in mind. Regular attendance does generally correlate with higher academic performances.
I appreciate the good intentions from all teachers, but it's not in our best interests to be penalized for skipping a class that's not worth going to. It shouldn't end up being students' problem if we're able to achieve our desired grades while attending classes at our own leisure.
It doesn't matter whether we spend our free time on Facebook or planting trees to help the global climate crisis. If we end up with a "B" instead of an "A," it better be because we didn't work hard enough on our own time and not because of lost attendance points. We definitely don't pay our teachers for educational outcomes like that.
If we find ourselves in this situation and the scale is tipping toward biting the bullet and going to class, that decision should only be justified if we're legitimately going to miss something vital to our education, and not because we might lose attendance points.
Although I would call myself an advocate for Western Illinois University and have taken excellent classes with some amazing teachers, too large of a fraction of my classes overall have not met the standards of what I think a quality education should embody.
The one factor that has been consistently frustrating in uninspiring classes is when the teachers require attendance - some may call it job security.
We've all voiced or heard someone else with the complaint that since we are the ones essentially paying our teachers for our education, we should have the right to choose how often we attend our classes.
I understand that point of view, but I also understand that our teachers create attendance policies with our best interests in mind. Regular attendance does generally correlate with higher academic performances.
I appreciate the good intentions from all teachers, but it's not in our best interests to be penalized for skipping a class that's not worth going to. It shouldn't end up being students' problem if we're able to achieve our desired grades while attending classes at our own leisure.
It doesn't matter whether we spend our free time on Facebook or planting trees to help the global climate crisis. If we end up with a "B" instead of an "A," it better be because we didn't work hard enough on our own time and not because of lost attendance points. We definitely don't pay our teachers for educational outcomes like that.
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