When I recently asked a freshman friend about her first year as a U student, she said, “I’ve been surprised. It’s pretty easy.”
Recalling my time at the U and remembering how unbelievably busy I have always felt, her answer surprised me. So I sat down and pulled out a transcript to see what I thought of my five years at Utah’s flagship institution of higher learning.
My finding: A lot of classes?more than I thought?were “pretty easy.” And my conclusion: An education from the U will mean more when it becomes more difficult.
I can already hear the objections raining down, especially as test week is approaching and due dates are piling up fast. I still vividly remember the semester I had four essay finals, a 10-page paper, a 15-page paper in a foreign language with at least 50 references, and a service learning project (a Web page) all due within a week of each other. I hardly slept, I lived on Snickers candy bars and I once spent 16 straight hours in a computer lab. It was a nightmare.
But as I reviewed my transcript, I realized that a large percentage?about 40 percent?of the 37 academic classes I took at the U, I considered “pretty easy.”
Like the classes in which the teacher would give test reviews along these lines: “Make sure you look at the example on page 419. There will be a question on the exam exactly like that example, but with different numbers. So bring a calculator.”
Or like the gigantic classes, with 450 students, that required only two multiple choice tests during the whole semester, all the questions from which were bolded definitions found prominently in the text (which was optional) and on the review sheet.
Or like the classes in which students talked the teacher down from required attendance, three tests, two papers, a group project and weekly quizzes to two tests, one paper, no group projects and no quizzes. Then, later in the semester, the instructor would agree to put the lecture notes on the Internet, so showing up to class wouldn’t matter.
Despite what I’ve just said, I’m not a glutton for scholastic punishment. I don’t love school, and I don’t enter a class hoping the teacher wants my head on a platter. Frankly, I was glad that classical mythology was a cinch. It relieved stress from my loaded schedule.
But other times I’ve felt shafted. For instance, the capstone course for my major, a case-based class that should have incorporated several years of learning, instead gave me little more than a few hours of unexpected free time every Monday night. Rather than going for two to three hours, the class usually lasted 45 minutes.
The instructor, an adjunct professor, traveled so much he hardly showed his face in class. When he was not there, his hired goons (employees) threw something on the board and soon called it a night. Instead of learning a book of cases, each class group learned the one case on which they reported. But perhaps I’m being unfair?the instructor did buy pizza for everyone the last night of class.
As a person and a professional, I liked the instructor. But his class wasted everyone’s time.
Students are sometimes happy to take the easy grade and run, as I did several times, but easy grades and easy classes cheapen everybody’s college education and university experience?and consequentially the U degree.
Further, classes that expect little of students seem to be habit-forming. When my most difficult instructors gave students demanding (but reasonable) work, students often bellowed in complaint. They resisted tough assignments after having so many easy ones. If students don’t expect to be challenged, they will likely challenge high expectations.
Some classes would also improve if all teachers followed the saying, “It is better to be respected than to be liked.” Few students love the teachers that work them the hardest while the class is in session. But they respect them. One student recently said to me, speaking of a famously difficult management teacher, “I can’t stand him, but I’ve learned a ton. He knows everything there is to know about the subject.”
Most good feelings toward demanding educators come later?sometimes years later?when students gratefully realize all they have learned.
A few other ideas that would improve an education at the U include the following:
Stop giving binge-and-purge scantron tests. If such tests are necessary, as they sometimes are, they should require students to apply concepts and ideas, rather than just ask, “What is the definition of?”
Require professors to teach more. Actual professors taught fewer than half of my college classes. Most adjunct professors and graduate students do a commendable job, but often the only experience they have had in a teaching environment is as a student in non-education courses. And good students do not necessarily make good teachers.
Ultimately, students are responsible for their educations. But with so many other concerns weighing down on them?jobs, extra curricular activities that graduate schools demand, relationships and more?students will almost always take the quickest route to meet a course’s requirements.
The way to improve education at the U, then, is for teachers who are demanding too little to raise the requirements.
Michael welcomes feedback at: [email protected] or send letters to the editor to: [email protected].