Oh just you wait and see

This editorial was published in the college newspaper this week.
At first when I read it I was so pissed off to think that this student is so presumptuous to think they have it so hard and everyone else has it so easy that I almost considered writing a letter.
But after a while my anger/perturbation died down to the point where I know that they will find out soon enough.
They just need to wait and see how easy they have it.
Oh yes.
Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha.
And please, share your thoughts!
(P.S. I've changed the name of the school to protect someone's identity, I'm just not sure who.)

Professors give too heavy of a workload
Can students handle it?

Let’s break this down step-by-step — to get an A in a course, professors say that students must study for three hours for each hour of class. If you are taking a three-credit class for three hours per week, you need to study for nine hours for that particular class. Now, most students take the average 15 credits per semester, so that makes 45 hours of studying a week to get a perfect 4.0 grade point average out of the 15 hours in class. A majority of TCAB classes have countless books to read, papers to write and tests and quizzes to study for during a 24-hour period.

Forty-five hours of studying each week is like having a full-time job, however, a fair majority of full-time jobs consist of only working 40 hours per week. Even though students study more than the average adult works, the adult-work world has more benefits than the student work world.

First of all, full-time workers are given vacation days, sick days and emergency days off from work. They can take a week off and travel around Europe or stay home to relax. If a full-time worker has the flu or needs to take care of a sick spouse, they are allowed to take a sick day. If a family member or close friend dies, full-time workers are allowed to attend the funeral and mourn for their loved one for a few days — if a full-time worker didn’t do this, we would think they had something wrong with them.

Now, a majority of TCAB policies and professors do not follow full-time work procedures or allowances. There is only spring break in the Spring semester and mid-semester break and Thanksgiving break in the Fall semester. Breaks are supposed to be a time of rest and relaxation, yet everyone is catching up on homework or extra-long readings professors assigned because they figure we have more time over breaks to complete readings and papers. If we try to take a day for ourselves, we immediately get behind with assignments and scramble to catch up.

Documented sick and emergency days are permitted at TCAB, but some professors are reluctant to have us miss class for those reasons. It’s true that we can never get back that class we missed, but sometimes true emergencies are more important than taking notes.

According to Your Right to Know and Academic Policies Handbook, chapter seven clearly defines what will count as an acceptable and excused absence: “Absences will be excused for documented illnesses, official representation of the College, death of a close relative, religious holiday and other circumstances beyond the control of the student.”

Though students may not be officially penalized for those reasons, some professors become annoyed when we miss class. Also, as people we are offended when we have to bring in obituaries to prove a relative’s death. We’re grieving here — have a little faith in us.

Additionally, the average full-time worker, like teachers or lawyers, is able to leave work at their job and not bring work home. In college, students have a multitude of other activities outside of attending classes and completing the required 45 hours of studying a week. Students have jobs — sometimes full-time off-campus jobs or on-campus jobs. Of course, sleep, showering and eating must be factored into a day as well as time to hang out with friends or to just take a five-minute breather.

Some professors say that college is preparing us for the “real world,” yet, they seem to be preparing us to the extreme. All we are asking is to consider lightening the work load because we have other classes and lives outside of school. Besides getting a good education, college is supposed to be full of fun memories, sporting games or random adventures.

In other words, let college students be college students while we still can. Let us read one less book or slightly shorten a paper length. These four years truly go by fast and we want more memories than all-nighters in the leading library with Red Bull as our only source of social interaction.

I think they've forgotten their 6 week break between the fall and spring semester as well as the almost 4 months off in the summer. They'll miss that time off when they hit the real world.
And I have to wonder, do they think that no one takes work home with them? When do they think their professors grade their work, only during the alloted 40 hour work week?
Oh yes, my dear, just you wait.
Reality will come knocking very soon and you'll remember college as "the good old days" when there weren't so many demands on your time.
Just you wait and see.