Class attendance should be mandatory. Should professors be understanding if you can’t make it to a class or two? Yes. Should there be ridiculous repercussions to students who are unable to make it to class? No.
But we must be honest about the reason we are going to school and the importance of the courses we take. I mean, we are paying thousands of dollars to get an education.
Professors are human and most will work with students (the professors who won’t: you know who you are). They are on a mission to teach us something useful and will help us once we enter the “real world.”
And I hope that everyone can find something that they are passionate about and can pursue it at college.
I am one of those students who has been going to school for a long time. I went to PPCC right after high school. After around three years and three changes to my college major, I decided to move and not go to school. I moved back here, finished my associates at PPCC and started at UCCS in the fall of 2020.
After spending a lot of money, taking out too many loans and trying every type of subject that universities offer, I found that the professors who are the best are strict in the right places.
They require attendance, have strict deadlines and offer tools that students can use when they graduate. As a student, it makes me feel like I am getting the best bang for my buck, knowing the professor cares about my future.
There was an accounting professor I had at PPCC who was tough in all those areas. She asked to talk to me one day after class; I was failing at the time. She told me her goal was to create the best accountants possible as she also taught the next two classes up. I told her about how
I was thinking about changing my major.
I ended up not failing the course in the end, and she helped me in a different way once she figured that I was not becoming an accountant or pursuing a business degree.
The reason she was a successful teacher is because she was committed to helping her students succeed outside of her classroom. She asked us to show up every day, and she showed up every day.
A good professor in the nursing program will do everything they can to ensure that their students are learning to become the best nurses. Because we need competent nurses out in the world. We need the same things for teachers, engineers, accountants and more.
The students in these programs need to show up to class. They should not pass if they cannot show up now. The class being mandatory is an imitation of the world outside the university.
And the world outside does not care about your time.
There are going to be horrible days after you graduate where you will have to suck up and commit to what you were called to do.
We can discuss theories about how things should be. But college is a place that prepares you for a life outside of it. Hopefully, everyone chooses something they love and takes the initiative to apply what they learn in university in their everyday life.
Should professors work with students who miss a class or two? Yes. Is there a way to reasonably work with students struggling while also making classes mandatory? Yes. But we are here for a reason, and the time slot for classes are for the classes.