College thoughts

In college, there are two types of classes in the way of learning. One - the information in class is something you're tested on, so even if there's not an attendance policy, you better be there or you'll miss a lot of information for the test. Those classes are hard for days when you are sick or traffic happens, or whatever. Two - you do a lot of outside work such as papers, projects, observations in the field, online discussions and quizes, group work, etc. but the info in class is not tested on and just for your own knowledge. In that case, if you miss a class you don't really miss anything important, but those classes often have attendance policies so you don't just stop coming. I have both types of classes every semester usually.

Also, here are my thoughts on reasons you could fail a test or class:

1. You were lazy and didn't put the time into it
2. You were a procrastinator who waits til the night  before or day of to do the work or study
3. You tried really hard but didn't understand the material (like math)
4. You tried really hard but couldn't remember all of the material (like econonomics, history, science)
5. You were easily distracted so even though you had good intentions you still didn't put your best effort into the work
6. You had something else going on in life that was important that was getting in the way when you tried to study such as planning a wedding, a death in the family, a new job, a new baby, a full time job, etc.

Now the thing is, you can't tell the reason for this when you look at other people! The only person who knows why they failed was the person who did, unless they told someone else. I think a lot o times people assum that 1 or 2 is the reason people fail, and that they should just get their act together and try harder, but honestly there are people who try really hard and can't get it all to stick in their head or can't really understand it all. That's mostly me when it comes to tough information.

Also, there are two guys in two different classes I'm taking this semester - one looks late 20's and one looks mid 30's - and they're the kind of guys who say stuff just to get a reaction out of people or make people mad and they think it's funny or they just want the attention. It baffles me that they act like 8 year olds still when it comes to that. For example, guy 1 put all this awful stuff on his "about me" poster for our art class at the beginning of the semester that I don't even want to write on here. Another time he talked about how if he saw a dead body he'd poke it with a stick. All this absurd stuff. In my special ed class we're learning about how to include special needs kids in the regular classroom and affectively teach them, and the teacher gave us a scenario saying one girl had a learning disability in a group, and wanted to see how we could keep her up to speed and have the other group memebers help her. Guy 2 says, "Well I wouldn't let her work with the group because she'd just slow everybody down, and if she hasn't gotten it by high school, well then she just ain't gonna get it. I'd just put her in a group with the rest of the slow kids or something." The teacher's eyes got huge and everybody freaked out. "She's not lazy, she has a learning disability!!!" I said. Everything he said went against everything we've learned all semester. At the end of class I even heard a girl say to him, "It's funny how everybody gets all mad about what you said, geez." Ok it's not funny, and if you want attention don't be a jerk to get it!

One thing that drives me crazy is when a bunch of people say, "Oh yeah, that geometry class we took was SO easy " and I"m having the hardest time in the class just passing. And I even have a good teacher. I'm not the only one in my class having a hard time with it, but it gets on my nerves when other people say, "Yeah, I didn't even have to study for that class!" and I study a ton for it. Bah. And by the way, I've heard some people say they hardly studied or did homework in college at all and I think, how is that possible!? What is wrong with you?! I have to put soooo much time into because either it's something that is due to turn in, or I don't get the information and really have to study it. Well congrats to those who don't have to study, but boy some people do! Including me!

It's so true that in college you learn "Why" most of the time. Why things happened, why they work the way they do, etc. Most of the time that's frustrating because I don't care why, I just know that's the way it is. For example, in geometry yesterday we had to go over why the formulas for area and volume go for each one. Instead of just plugging in some numbers and solving the equations, we had to know where the equation came from, and why it worked. And it's not just for cubes, because that's easy, but also for pyramids, prisms, spheres, etc.