This tired Bwogger has a bone to pick with the people who decide when classes are scheduled. 

Look. I get it. The vast majority of college students actually only want to take classes Monday through Thursday from approximately 12 PM to 4 PM (if they show up to class at all) and there are more classes to be had than there are classrooms available at that time. As much as we hate them, those 8:40s exist for a reason and it’s because we might go to the greatest college in the greatest city in the greatest country in the greatest world in the greatest universe but that doesn’t mean Prezbo can use that $10 billion endowment to consume all of Manhattan. I understand that.

Putting all that aside, I would like to ask who in their right mind chooses to schedule an intro lecture at 10:10 AM on a Friday morning. Sure, it’s no 8:40, but that still means in order to haul my (probably hungover) ass out of bed at 9 AM to make sure I even come close to making it on time. Even when I chose not to indulge in the follies of youth, I am still an underslept, overworked college student; by the time I get to Friday morning, the week has wrung every last bit of joy and energy out of me, leaving me a limp, useless sponge nodding off over my notes while my professor expounds on the finer points of rhyme and meter. I know I’m not alone in this; language and STEM students have to deal with these far more often than humanities nerds like me and we’re all at the end of our collective ropes. Having an exam on those mornings? I can’t even imagine trying to make my brain function at a higher level based. By the time Friday rolls around, I can barely speak English especially before noon. Intro classes are supposed to cover a lot of material and you just aren’t going to retain any of it in these circumstances.

In my particular case, the relative suckiness of the situation is that the Friday lectures cover what we discuss in seminar/recitation the following Monday. As it so happens, we’ve had several graded response essays due that Monday that couldn’t be effectively started until after Friday’s lecture. This creates a system that assumes student’s weekends aren’t, perhaps, busier than their weekdays. Ignoring the fact that weekends are supposed to be, at least in part, time to destress from the toxicity of the week and socialize with equally busy friends, most people have other obligations, whether that’s putting in hours at work, attending events and meetings for their extracurricular activities and applying to jobs or cleaning their rooms. Forcing us to cram a 3 page essay, or a ton of reading, or a discussion post into those two days can be asking a lot and I’m tired of it.

Something has to go there; I understand. But please, whoever scheduling classes, please take a moment of your time and remember that no one is actually going to learn anything on a Friday morning, even if they manage to show up. The introduction to our prospective majors deserves better than students at their least coherent. If at all possible, put something there that doesn’t require any brainpower. (Or at least, something I personally don’t have to take.)

down the scheduling rabbit hole via Bwog Archives