Overloading

I wanted to talk briefly before class about the issue of overloading students. I’m not talking about homework (because as most of you know, I’m not all that concerned with homework).

 Let me paint a picture, if you don’t mind.

Tuesday morning, I woke up, finished “The Worst Hard Time” and went to my 9:30 theology class where we talked about the subjigation of women in the Helenistic period. Apparently the brain copacity of women was somewhere between that of a small animal and that of a man. Then, I was off to lunch where I discussed human rights violations against illigal immigrants in the southern border states. Finally, I went to my black studies class where I watched a movie about torture and murder of children in South Africa.

I left the class crying. Luckily my next class was cancelled because I was a mess. I wasn’t sure where my professors expected me to digest this information. Was I supposed to be able to walk off after viewing that movie and skip along to my computer science class? How could they expect that of us?

Maybe other students don’t go through this, and maybe they do. One thing is for sure: yesterday, I felt like the only person on campus who has ever felt this way. As I walked up the mall, teary-eyed, I saw girld talking about their Blackberries and people enjoying the good weather, and it made me feel like I was.. what? Maybe I was wring to feel that way.

 So this is what I want to know. Obviously, Carol’s class is the only class I have where we have absolute teacher attention, and we a re free to discuss the meaning of certain materials. We are free to discuss our reactions and how we feel as journalists, students and human beings. But, the rest of the classes aren’t like that.

So what are we supposed to do? What do our teachers expect of us?

All I am saying is it seems like in college I just get bogged down with Bad News 101, Bad news 201 and so on. Other than the thereputic art of blogging, it seems like we are not offered outlets to discuss how to digest the information we learned in class. By the time I get home at night, my head is just swirling with new information and I don’t know where to file it all. What information takes priority? What issues am I supposed to get angry about? Who am I supposed to be an advocate for as a journalist? The Native Americans in South Dakota, or the illegal immigrants in Omaha, or the Sudanese in Africa (or right around the corner from campus for that matter), or what?

Professors need to assume that students take what they teach to heart, and offer time for discussion rather than lecture. Sometimes, we studetns need a BREAK!