Journal #3

Agree:

Fewer teacher opinions and more facts

Don’t take absences so seriously. If a student doesn’t come to class it will show! They will fail themselves if too many are missed

Disagree:

Stop only rewarding and encouraging Type A personalities.

I agree that there should be fewer teacher opinions in the classroom. I am a CMC tutor, and a lot of the topics covered in the courses in this major are subject to the opinions of the teacher. This makes it very difficult for students who have differing opinions to do well in the courses. There are a lot of political overtones in the courses that steer many students away from the major because they are afraid that they will have a difficult time if they do not change their views. I have had the same problems with the major, and can sympathize with this.

I also agree that absences should not be taken so seriously. Students who deserve good grades should not have points taken off because they were unable to attend a class. Very often, students miss classes for family emergencies or because they are sick. At this school, many students continue to go to class when they are sick because they do not want points taken off of their grade for missing. This is not what college is about. It is about learning to be responsible for yourself because you are an adult. This means that those who miss class by choice should be responsible for the grades that they receive, instead of being scared into going by a policy that limits the number of classes they can miss.

I disagree with the statement that teachers should stop rewarding only type A personalities. What defines a “type A” person also defines a good student, and while students may not be “type A” outside of the classroom, they should take on that mentality when they walk into the classroom if they want to get good grades. Type A students do their work rigorously, hand it in on time, and have a very good work ethic. While I might not describe some of the students that I tutor as type A people, they are serious about their work and might therefore be type A students. This is not a bad thing because it means that they work hard for their grades.