Amy Smelser | Echo
Bah, humbug!
Perhaps that's how some students perceive their professors' attitudes toward vacations. After all, they write the syllabuses, don't they? They know vacation dates before they plan the semester, right?
My classes have fairly large assignments due the Tuesday after spring break. These assignments have been on the syllabi since before classes started. Yes, I knew the dates of spring break. Yes, I believe everyone deserves a vacation.
But, remember, learning doesn't take a vacation.
Faculty are charged with providing a challenging education to students. Media Communication's mission statement says we are to promote the development of lifelong learners. Lifelong-not just while classes are in session. Not just during the academic calendar of a student's college career.
The academic calendar does not determine when and where learning happens. Sometimes completing assignments over break is beneficial. Maybe being away from the world of academia promotes a calmer learning environment. Maybe focusing on one or two projects instead of four or five produces better end products.
However, if we're being completely honest, a student's workload during break is not always the professor's fault.
How many projects or papers have you put off until the last minute? Is spring break homework assigned to you, or did you plan poorly?
A simple online search of "homework during spring break" results in many articles offering survival tips. College life expert Kelci Lynn Lucier says vacation may provide opportunities to get ahead, so make a plan.
"It may sound like the last thing you want to do, but your brain is probably still in college mode-so take advantage of it," she suggests in an article posted to About.com. "Go through what you have to get done and when you need it done by."
If you tell your parents and friends you have work to do, surely they'll understand, Lucier adds. In some cases, they're the ones financing college; your success is a return on their investment. They can arrange activities to accommodate your study needs.
Mine did. During my sophomore year of college, I skipped a family Thanksgiving dinner to read an entire novel and write a research paper. The five-page paper was due on Monday.
That situation was entirely my fault. Lack of planning forced me to miss my great aunt's super-dry red velvet cake. But I got to eat leftovers later without hearing about how awesome my cousins were and how much they were accomplishing in college. (Wait, maybe it was actually brilliant planning on my part. . . . )
Lest you panic that your entire spring break is history before it starts, remember that, perhaps, your lack of planning ahead put you in this position. As I said earlier, all of my students have projects due immediately after break. But am I really a vacation Scrooge?
My students will turn in drafts of their papers two times before break for peer editing. By the time they leave my class on Thursday, their papers should be almost finished. If they take advantage of the suggestions their peers and I have given them, they should not have any homework to complete over break. So if any student of mine has to work for my class during vacation, well, it's not my fault.
And most likely, other professors feel the same way. We give you the syllabi to help you think through the semester, not just because we're required to do so. I have yet to meet a faculty member who is a true vacation Scrooge.
And if you examine yourself and your priorities, you probably haven't, either.
