Guest column: Demand excellent education

The Diamondback's Sept. 1 article, "To skip, or not to skip?" concerned the phenomenon of skipping class. This is without a doubt, and without regard to any personal opinion on the topic, a troubling issue. Do we, as a student body that believes in academic excellence and school spirit, actually question whether any class is worth skipping? Do we actually believe that because a professor is unappealing, unattractive or uninteresting, the course material would follow suit?

 

Many philosophers have discussed the notion of the public rising up to change the course of order. Two of these philosophers were Greek political orator Pericles (c. 495-429 BCE) and Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), a Russian theorist.

 

Pericles once stated in a speech defending democratic action that, "We Athenians do not call a man who takes no part in public life quiet or unambitious; we call such a man useless." Kropotkin addressed his countrymen and asked, "What kind of world do you want to live in? Demand that your teachers teach you what you need to know to build it."

 

While the men had different audiences, different politics and different languages, they had a similar message: The world is yours for the making, and it is up to you to make the world.

 

If a professor is simply a monotonous lump standing at the head of a lecture hall wearing a striped polo shirt and a feedback-ridden microphone, tell him that. If the professor is so cheesy she'd be more appealing to 2-year olds than to 20-year olds, tell her that. If the syllabus covers only the mere basics of your amazing course topic and you know there will be the time, energy and support to alter the syllabus to include some of the more intriguing concepts, ask your professor to change the schedule.

 

Professors at this university are not here to teach us what they believe will benefit us in the long run. They are here to mold us in accordance with the stencils we provide for them. There are more students, with more opinions about current events and future goals, than professors. If not by might, if not by power, then it should be by spirit that the student body rises up to make a change in how and what we are taught.

 

Go to office hours and talk with your professors. Log onto ELMS and e-mail your teaching assistants. Let them know that you are bored with Tydings Hall, tired of Van Munching Hall and finished with the J.M. Patterson Building. Ask them whether there is a reason for you to stay. Tell them you demand that this university fulfill its intended purpose: to assist the student body in maturing into the next wave, the greatest wave and the most influential wave of local, national and global actors. 

 

Jeremy Krones is a sophomore environmental science and policy major. He can be reached at jdkrones at gmail dot com.