Wait, which foot is the "right" one?

We've just finished the first full week of classes and I want to talk a little about starting off on the "right" foot. Why? Because I'm already getting e-mails from professors telling me that some of my students have missed several classes.

I work at a large school...a very, very large school. But that doesn't mean that instructors don't communicate with one another and quite frankly, I hear everything. I already know which of my students are going to have academic troubles down the road, simply because they are missing classes and I can pinpoint which students are heading for heartbreak because they are giving their teachers nothing but attitude.

I get it, I really do. You are experiencing freedom for the first time. No one is telling you that you absolutely MUST go to class. No one is shaking you awake in the mornings or making you breakfast or doing your laundry for you. But you're establishing a pattern that is incredibly dangerous.

Think about your earliest class--chances are it's at 8am. Now, no one likes an 8am class (I personally had an 8am Water Aerobics class my freshman year of college. Early mornings + cold water = Shaun being very bitter and sarcastic. Needless to say, my teacher was not very fond of me.) But that 8am class is STILL later than your earliest high school class! You need to start getting yourself up in the mornings and get to that class. If you want to stay up late, that's fine, but maybe going to bed a little bit earlier the night before you have early classes would be a good idea.

I worked incredibly hard this summer to plan out my students' schedules. Each new student is required to take the freshman English class and I adjusted and finagled until everyone had a truly wonderful teacher (there are 5 of them). These are teachers who understand artists, how they learn, the way they think, and that artists need supportive and engaging teachers. And yet, I have students who are blowing off this class. You can't get a true measure of a course unless you actually GO to it.

You also can't get the true measure of a class if you enter each meeting with the attitude that you are somehow "better" than the material being taught and the person who is teaching it. I have spoken before about the idea that professors don't "hate" students. I stick by that. But you can surely make a bad impression on a professor. Dissenting opinions in the classroom are fine (I encourage them), but you have to be cautious about how you express them. If a professor says something you don't agree with, ask a question! There is a huge difference between saying, "Dr. X, you are totally wrong!" and "Dr. X, I recently read a case study in Bob's Medical Journal which refutes that opinion, could you discuss the differences between these two theories?"

I can't stress this enough; most of you are just beginning your college career. If you knew everything there was to know, you would already have your degree. You're here to LEARN! Why not take every opportunity that presents itself to ask questions and learn more? Use your professors as a resource: figure out what material you've missed and make it up.

You are capable of a lot more than what you've shown so far.