Attendance Policy

So I thought one of the most different and coolest things about starting college and leaving high school behind was also leaving behind class attendance policies. I was going to pick and choose when I went to class and which classes I felt like going to that day.

Ya, that didn’t work out so well.

Here I am at SMU, still being graded on class attendance and signing in to say I was there. I thought I grew out of this?!

Apparently not. In the past few years, SMU has been working hard to enforce class participation and attendance by making class attendance count for a percentage of the semester grade and subtracting from the grade if a person misses a given amount of classes.

Now, I understand the motivation behind SMU to implement this reinforcement of the rules. By making class mandatory, it forces students to keep up with the workload the teacher has planned for the class. This, in turn, will theoretically yield higher grades and test scores, therefore, improving the academic standings of the university as a whole. Trust me, I get that this is for our own benefit and is being used as a way to keep us more on track with our lives in order. But at what point are we supposed to take responsibility for our own actions and decisions?

By allowing us as students to make our own decisions about whether or not class is important that day, we make our own mistakes and learn solely from ourselves. I think it is good and healthy to leave the decision up to the individual. If they continue to repeatedly miss class they will have no one to blame but themselves and will have learned from their own experience.

Because I’m a big believer of learning from the mistakes I make, I don’t think that SMU’s attendance policy is necessary. However, I’m sure there are those who would gladly disagree with me, and I’d love to hear another point of view on the matter.

Stereotyping

Stereotyping. Its something we all do both consciously and subconsciously, whether we like it or not. We do it walking down the street, in our classes, when we go out, when we travel, etc. But why is it that we do it? And what are some of our favorites?

When we enter a room or crowded place, we don’t have time to meet and get to know everyone there and their stories. It just isn’t possible to know everything about everyone you pass or meet. So, we take what we do know (i.e. hair color, wardrobe, height, race, mannerisms, etc.) and make a judgment about the person based on that.

Is that so wrong though? When I hear the word “stereotype,” I immediately associate a negative connotation with it unfortunately. People are always protesting against being stereotyped and not wanting to be grouped into a bad one. This is totally understandable. No one wants to be judged for something they have no connection with. Everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves without being prejudged.

But, in this day and age, with the amount of violence and national security problems that continue to be prevalent in everyday life, can anyone really blame us for stereotyping? In other words, if it’s being done in self-defense or for the protection of innocent minds and lives, isn’t it almost necessary to stereotype to a certain degree?

I’d love to hear your views on this topic because I think it has very good arguments for both sides of it.