Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Column: Students, working hard or hardly working?
By Ben Slivnick
The Diamondback, U. Maryland
March 09, 2009

We've become a nation of cutting corners.

It's no wonder why pretty soon we're all going to be poor or owned by China. When jobs everywhere are going to hell, Americans are still asking one resounding question: How can I get out of it?

Like how people start skipping classes for the most ridiculous reasons.

"Oh, it's such a nice day. I think I'll skip." If that's your reason, how come you're spending the day inside watching Tool Academy?

Or, "Oh, this class is too far away." Get your ass up the hill outside Stamp Student Union and stop complaining. Somewhere, someone has a problem worse than walking up a 40 degree incline. In some places, the incline is 45 degrees.

Students also get upset about having work the week before spring break. And then everyone gets upset the week after spring break too. So really, spring break should be three weeks long. Except then people would complain about having work the three weeks before and after that until we just decided to cancel work forever. You've got to draw the line somewhere.

And it's not like people are any more stupid or lazy than ever before. It's just that now they get away with it. Some people here have perfected the art of cheating to the point where they've never received a day of education in their lives. These people are going to go off into the world with college degrees and make tough decisions. Hopefully, someone smart will be there to copy off of.

Kids think they deserve top grades just for showing up or simply turning in 10 pages with writing on them. You don't automatically get a good grade just for existing. But people feel like it's OK to cut corners and that we should all be treated like winners. And what's scary is that we actually are treated like winners.

And it's not like I'm high and mighty on this one either, because I'm just as guilty as anyone else. I don't start my work until the night before it's due, if that. I don't do readings when I feel like I don't have to. I turned in this very column a day late. But we should want to get better, not be OK with sucking.

It's like those books I don't read. Maybe I don't need them to get good grades, but inside those books is an education. And if that's really what we were getting graded on, we're all probably failing.

Fortunately, that's not the case. My GPA is a 3.35.

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