2 posts tagged “classes”
Great class tonight, a lot of engaging discussions. Many of the students in this sociology course I'm in arrive early and leave a few minutes after the scheduled class ending time. So you can tell it's an interesting class. Our instructor is from Kenya, and he's been educated in London and Paris, so he has an endless wealth of knowledge and a more global perspective to share with us. I'm glad of that. I truly think that every college professor should not only have a requirement to be degreed, but they should also have had to spend a significant amount of time outside of the country. We need more instructors like this that cause us to think and really explore the world around us rather than doling out the conservative drivel of textbooks that tell us what to think.
Earlier, in the University of Maryland student cafe inside the main library, I wrote this rant centered around an assignment that I perceived was due today. Then, I later found out from a classmate that my assignment was not due until NEXT Monday --- whoops.
"So much for getting my first short assignment done for my class. I was sure that I had plenty of time today. However, I guess I have now learned both a better version of patience and to plan ahead more than I did.
The assignment was simple -- to use our textbook and two other introductory sociology textbooks, take the definition of sociology from each and then write a short bit about what school of sociology we think the author of the book hails from, according to how each definition was worded. However, we couldn't use any sources online, which is the avenue I would have chosen had I had the choice. I thought I'd just use the entire day Monday, since I was already off, to accomplish this. A whole day? Plenty of time, right? I'd sleep in and just hop on over to the University of Maryland's library since the one in Greenbelt, Maryland, where I live was closed.
I didn't count on a lot of things, like how long it would take me to get around on campus -- finding parking and figuring out the lay of the land. I couldn't make a copy of the book without a copy card. Well, in order to get the copy card, I had to buy one, which was $1 (minus the amount you then need to load onto the card in order to make copies and perform print jobs). However, as seems to be my lot in life, I was armed with credit cards only, and the machine would not accept them. I headed back over to the Stamp Student Union, from whence I had just come, to locate an ATM and withdraw money. Back and forth and around and around it seems I went to navigate so much just to accomplish a small few tasks.
Then, it turns out, in a university of this size and stature, there was only one -- count it ONE -- introductory sociology text in the entire library. The librarian told me they didn't generally carry textbooks.
So that was great news. I knew they didn't carry them in the Borders or Barnes and Noble types of bookstores any more than this library did, because I'd already combed through the stores throughout the week. So where does one find a sociology textbook then without buying one?
I'm going to arrive early and discuss this with my instructor today, but this is a really frustrating beginning to my studies.
Also, I was disheartened to discover that University of Maryland University College students are not offered access to the UMD wireless network, to which there are over 200 points on campus. We use the facilities and attend classes here, but we cannot access the wireless when we need to get on the Internet and do some research in the library. I find this very disconcerting. Even when I offered to pay for an account, I was told that the option is not even available.
One thing I believe about student life -- is that nothing is set up to be inexpensive or easy. It's as if college is not just about taking classes and showing your smarts but navigating many annoying, inconvenient levels of bureaucracy, paperwork and the lack of common sense, as if in a video game, to see who can remain patient and keep her wits about her.
I am already tired and my class begins at 7 p.m. and lasts another three hours. I hope to discover I wasn't the only one who had pains locating enough textbooks for our assignment. I guess we will see.
On the up side, I have my bearings better. I now have a clue as to where the Stamp Student Union is in relation to the McKeldin Library. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to glimpse the campus during daylight hours, and when I drove around at night before, I succeeded in nothing more than getting lost.
So at least I won't feel like such a lost soul. I'm now debating whether I might benefit better from just taking courses online from now on, to save myself the hassle of beating feet all over campus just to accomplish the things I need to do, to avoid the freezing cold commutes to Marie Mount Hall where my classes are held. But I'm afraid I'd let myself off the hook too much were I to just have my classroom contained within the framework of my laptop, which I could choose to open at will or not. Plus, the time-consuming walks from place to place have got to add to my daily exercise quota, right? That's got to be good.
Long evenings, costs, frustrations -- I guess without these things college just wouldn't be college, would it now? Besides, there are many other people who have undergone this process and lived to tell about it. I'm sure I can too, and that I will come out wiser and with gobs more patience than I ever dreamed of acquiring."
So, as you can see, I was very excited to find out I had another week on the assignment. I guess if I'd kept up with my syllabus and actually referred to it, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache today.
