But it drives me NUTS!
I'm taking a College Algebra class this semester. I needed a math credit, but I didn't want to take Basic Math or Sample Survey because everyone takes them and they didn't sound like any fun at all. I took up through AP Calculus in high school and, when I got there, I realized that algebra wasn't really bad at all. I even liked it. So I figured, College Algebra. Why not? It'll probably be, what? Algebra II all over again? Sweet. I can deal with that. Nope. It actually turns out it's Pre-Calculus all over again. Which is fine - I took Pre-Cal my junior year of high school and got an A. But it's... well... it's been a while and I wasn't originally planning on having to think that hard about math this semester. Not that it's been hard. It's actually been very easy. The worst grade I've gotten on homework so far has been a 9.5 out of 10 and I got a 90 on the first test. But we have homework every day of class and it usually takes me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.
My professor is an adjunct. She's nice enough, and from what she's said in class she's had math classes up through Master's level.
My problems with the class:
Firstly, (and this isn't a huge deal):
Almost every day in class, when working problems on the board, she'll confuse herself and make math errors. I realize that not everyone's perfect, and that it's very easy to make little math mistakes, but when it happens consistently, at LEAST once every day if not more, it just gets frustrating. Fortunately, I'm usually watching closely and realize where she makes the mistakes and can write my notes correctly, but I know there are other students in the class who have trouble following her.
Secondly (and this is what really bothers me):
We spend (okay, I'll go ahead and use the stronger word - waste) fifteen minutes at the beginning of every class period having a devotional that has absolutely nothing to do with the lesson, nor does it help prepare us for the lesson. AND, when we get to the end of the lesson, more often than not, she will have to rush through the rest of the notes she needs to give us because there's not enough time left to cover everything, she gets flustered, and makes more math errors than ever. I just really don't see how this is helpful.
Okay, okay, I can hear your objections in my head. "You go to a Christian university, of COURSE you should have a devotional before class." "Waste? Are you even a Christian?"
Yes. I am. But gimme a second.
There's something called the "integration of faith and learning" which is a focus of many Christian institutions of higher education, IWU included. It basically means that a student's worldview and faith should be deeply tied into the student's learning experience or, perhaps, exercised within that learning experience in some way.
This puts a lot of pressure of professors. If they don't satisfactorily tie faith and learning together in their classes, it is reflected badly in their reviews at the end of the semester. Instructors must profess Christian faith in order to be hired at IWU.
So, I mean, on one level, I understand. In order to do well in her reviews and remain a professor at IWU, she might feel she has to do this. But at the same time, I hardly feel that this is integration.
The Dictionary.com definition of "integration" is
verb (used with object)
1.
to bring together or incorporate (parts) into a whole.
To me, rather than integration, the devotional before class creates a dichotomy. First we have spiritual things, then we move on to secular things like math. Classes. College. Learning. They don't all go together into one category. We separate them.
But that's not the part that bothers me the most. No. The part that bothers me the most is how we get extra credit for the class. It's a math class, so you'd think that in order to get extra credit, we would do something like correct the mistakes on tests or homework assignments, do extra math problems, do something to actually practice the things we're learning in math. Right? No. To get extra credit, she told us that we can lead one of the devotionals before class. She gave us the length it needed to be (5 minutes) and some subjects it might be nice if we led a devotional about.
Am I the only Christian on this planet who thinks something about that isn't quite right?
Please let me know. I'm curious.
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