As teenagers in high school mature into young adults and transition to the college lifestyle, a question always stands: What is expected of us as we grow? Leaving the nest of our parents’ homes for the first time to live by ourselves is a big step in the direction of adulthood. As a student there is sort of a funny sensation that although we are not viewed as teenagers in high school, we still have restrictions.
Being a college student, I didn’t expect to pay for classes and additionally have a mandatory attendance that would overall affect my final grades. In highschool, we were told to never skip class. But when I was a high schooler, hearing that from older generations, I personally never thought that I would HAVE to attend a class that still took legitimate attendance after highschool.
Although every class is different and every professor has their own teaching methods and rules on how to run their classes, many of my classes have an attendance policy. After a certain amount of unexcused absences your grade will begin to suffer. The only difference between highschool and college classes is that they can’t call your parents to tell them you’ve been skipping because we technically are supposed to be adults. But with the responsibility of adulthood, why should we have mandatory attendance for classes?
Learning to mature and grow is something everyone experiences, all in different forms. Many may argue that having an attendance policy can help shape and form students for their future. Why do we need to feel the need to nurture everyone until it sticks in their brains?
A part of understanding maturity and growing up is putting the puzzle pieces together. If you don’t go to class, don’t do your homework and don’t study for any tests, your grade will most likely suffer. This situation isn’t rocket science, for most. As college students, we are here paying to get an education. Paying money out of our own pockets and oftentimes coming out of the bank in forms of loans. We know that we are paying lots of dollars to go to class and earn a degree in whatever we choose.
But, being a mature and responsible student, one should already know that they need to go to class. We shouldn’t have to be told that if we choose not to come to class that our grades will suffer. In the end, if you as a student decide to come to class or not and you fail your class. Whose fault truly is it? Being a student we hold the power to decide if we want to come to school to learn or not.
Maybe you are feeling sick, physically or mentally, and don’t have the strength to come to class? Sure you could email your professor and tell them what is going on. But that still will count against you in the long run.
In the real world we have a “mandatory attendance” and that’s called showing up for your job on time. If you continuously keep showing up late, most likely you will get fired. But if you learn at an earlier age that being a mature adult means you just know to show up when you are needed. It will help you in the future without constantly having someone down your back, telling you that you have to be here and there at this time or else there will be a consequence.
Personally, I don’t feel as if we should have mandatory attendance that hinders one’s grades. We are all playing the game of life. And once you figure out the way to play it will be much easier in the end.
