The Devil's Advocate

Slackers need to stop their complaining

Slackerdom — we have all been there. However, the extent to which the fog of slack enshrouds the college appears to be slightly out of control.

Except for those lucky students blessed by the fairy of “Never-ending financial aid,” most of us pay a hefty sum to attend to this place of higher education. For this reason, the phenomenon of not studying or being unprepared for class boggles the mind. Sure, the unexpected does happen. Big tests and papers definitely have a way of sucking vast amounts of time. We all slack sometimes. When an entire class is slacking though, things are getting out of hand.

Here is my biggest beef — students who do not do their homework and then have the gall to complain all through class that the course is too hard. The atmosphere of the class becomes strained with anger and frustration. Thankfully, there is a simple cure for this frustration. Guess what? The odds are that if you do the work and prepare for class, the class will not seem as difficult as it once did.

Further complicating the situation, it is completely disrespectful to the professor and other students to waste time on covering material that should have already been studied. Why should the rest of us to sit through the ranting and complaining of those who slack? Ideally, class should be spent covering new material or working with, and expanding upon, what has been studied.

To put it another way, we pay about $400 per semester credit. Why on earth then would one not study? Make the most of your payments. Cash in educationally on these exorbitant fees.

Maybe you are an English major and couldn’t give a darn about that lab science course required by the college. You probably put more study time into actual areas of interest than the lab class. Fine, just don’t bog down the class with questions that can easily be found by doing the reading.

While the trend in slacking off a bit is pretty understandable with required classes (but certainly not in Inventing America), the fact that it happens in 300-level courses is bizarre. (Granted, to fully participate in the liberal arts education students should not slack in the required courses, but there are only so many hours in a day.)

Presumably, by the time a student is taking a 300-level course, he or she is probably taking it for a major or a minor. To take this presumption one step further, one would guess that students tend to enjoy the classes taken for the major. So then, why not do the work?

We are students. Our job is learning. Numerous other activities clutter our time and vie for our attention, but, as students, our studies come first.

If you are going to slack, don’t complain.

Slackers act as comic relief in class

Slackers - They have arrived, and are here in full force. Protect your children, hide the family dog, and make sure that you turn you T.V.s off, or they’ll end up sitting on your couch watching Scooby-Doo.

Nothing makes me smile like a whole class which is, after a Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon weekend, completely unprepared for any sort of rational discussion of the topics which were to be prepared for class. Perhaps the best thing about it is watching these people squirm about, dodging questions and trying to present an image of togetherness.

Personally, it is truly enjoyable to watch both sides of this ridiculous tirade. The slackers complain about work being too difficult, even though they haven’t opened their Bio books. I have news for you, it gets harder when you actually do work. For all those hard-working students who actually read all of the material Partovi assigned over the weekend and get their well-deserved “A-” on their papers, think of the slacking of your comrades as an opportunity to express your exceptional knowledge of the topic. What better way to further your education than to be right again?

I enjoy the rantings of slackers as a mid-class break, allowing me to better formulate my thoughts for the rest of the class. This humorous interlude, much like the numerous clowns and porters of Shakespearean tragedy, act as comic relief for my otherwise banal classes. Ideally, these “students,” for lack of a better term, would talk themselves into corners more often, stating opinions diametrically opposed to the literature we are supposed to be reading, and being called on it by professors. Nothing increases my respect for a professor more than when s/he asks a student a question like, “Have you been listening at all?” or “Have you even bought this book?”

My personal favorite is when students are actively insulted, especially by other students. Nothing like a session of class spent laughing at a student’s expense.

I can understand why upperclassmen in high level courses avoid work. I mean, they usually know this material backwards and forwards anyway, and they have done their hard time already. In a sense, it is their right to do so. It is when incoming freshman, in 100 level courses pretend like they know what they are talking about that I get angry. The little sports haven’t got the sense to tie their own shoes.

Personally, I like to look at these people and laugh.

Usually the people who are slackers are not capable of reading the material assigned anyway, and if they did they would get virtually nothing from it, so why bother reading it at all. It makes sense to me. For these “higher-than-thou” students who feel that the entire world is centered around their learning experience, you seem to have forgotten that the slacker in your Astronomy course has also paid his fee, and has as much right to speak as you do.

The question on everyone’s mind is, “What are you here for, an education, an experience or a diploma?” I’m here for the show, I have the popcorn, let’s go to Inventing America and watch the pimple ridden freshman squirm under pressure.