The Edmundson Essay

This essay was a little hard to read with the grain for to main reasons. One being that he seems to be writing from a professors stand point about college students. I can not relate to him for I am only a college student and not a professor. He is also very choppy and jumpy throughout his essay. He seems to just bounce from one idea/problem to another not giving enough information on his statements or enough information to back up what he is leaving out. Another reason is that he seems to be very sarcastic and he talks down to the audience, which would most likely be students of some kind. To be quite honest he seems very full of himself. There are some other things that I liked and didn't like in his essay.
He seems to blame things that go wrong on the students. This is only half true. Professors are just as responsible to make sure the students are learning what their supposed to be learning, or have an understanding of it. So, if the majority of the students in a class missed the same questions then there is a problem with the way the professor taught that material and they need to correct the situation. Now, here me out I am not saying that all a students bad grades is because the professor is a poor teacher. I am saying if more than three-quarters of the class missed the same questions then there is a problem. However, he does touch on some good points in his essay.
One of his points is that he believes that students should solely pick their classes and not have required ones. I completely agree with him on this because, he states, that students lose focus on what they are supposed to be doing. However, if they are in a class they pick that directly affects them then they will pay more attention in the class. So, if I was a psychology major and was taking both psychology classes and chemistry classes, I would pay less attention to chemistry and more to psychology because it directly affects me and my future because that is what I am majoring in.
It is also true that students do get bored with school. I agree with him on this remark. I also like the idea/plan he states about trying to keep the class "fresh." Giving class curves on a test will make them happier but do other things to keep them entertained. If it is a small class, take them outside on a nice day and go over things outside. If it is a cultural class give students extra credit to come into class, one day, dressed up as the culture that is being studied currently. Just to have an activity relating to the class so the students are not only learning but have a good time to will definitely boost their mindset to pay more attention in class.