I thought i would have more time to spend with the new material i'm learning in my classes this summer than i did last semester. Boy was i wrong. I guess taking three classes this spring was a bit ambitious, especially considering two of the teachers suggested that it was in the student's best interest not to take any other courses at the same time due to the accelerated pace and corresponding work load. So far this first week i've been in class all day and then i go home and work on my assignments all night. I hope i can make it through these six weeks.
It kind of makes me wonder what summer classes are really all about. Right now it feels as though the school is punishing me -- like GVSU only offers summer classes for those students who weren't smart enough to fit them into their fall and winter schedules. A semester's worth of material is condensed into a six-week cram session. I wonder if someone has researched the retention of material covered in a regular semester versus a summer semester.
My real problem with this is that i hang onto the somewhat romantic idea that someday colleges will embrace a year-round learning philosophy. Instead of two, six-week sessions in the summer, just make it a third semester. Each of the three semesters would have generous breaks in between. That way a degree could be earned in three years (nine semesters). When elementary schools talk about going year-round, i usually hear reasons against it in terms of it would destroy the summer tourism industry or it costs too much to cool the schools from the summer heat. Are these the reasons colleges don't do it? Why leave a campus virtually deserted for months at a time? Do students need to find part time summer work to keep the economy alive, or are they still going back to help the family harvest the crops? If college teachers don't want to work year-round they could just stagger which of the three semesters they take off.
It seems like such a waste to suggest only taking one class during the spring\summer semester. Many of the other folks i have spoken to are taking three classes just like I am. It seems as though there's a disconnect between what the students want and what GVSU offers. I wish i understood their philosophy better or they understood mine.
Posted by Matthew at May 9, 2006 11:26 PM