What's With The Dumb Assignments In College? (school, credits, master's)
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I guess as a professional with 20 years experience, I don't see how I will learn anything from this assignment. Looking at it from the point of the kids in the class is a different story.
Thanks for all the great prejorotive replies, though. People on here really show thier insecurities
Conducting in-depth interviews with subject matter experts, analyzing transcripts, and mining for data to be transformed, analyzed, and presented upon was one of the key skill sets that set me up for success at an internship in a 3 letter agency, assistantship, now grad school, and beyond.
I'm thankful for the assignments that had me conducting interviews. Would you seriously prefer low-level multiple-guess exams that don't actually do anything?
Edit: I see you are an established professional, all the more reason I think you should be able to perceive the value of assignments like this as opposed to rote-memorization, after all, how many critical points in your career were assisted by all the multiple choice exams you took? My guess is that you can count them on one hand, if the count is not zero.
Imagine how much worse the class would be if instead of assignments that actually have you refining skills, you only had to use low-level brain functions like rote memorization for a 250 question multiple choice exam about religions. "Selling yourself" and your interview idea to potential interviewees is part of the package. Entire careers can be defined on one presentation after another.
Last edited by Mighty_Pelican; 06-27-2013 at 09:42 PM..
I decided I was an agnostic at 12. Why would anyone take a world's religions class? Which religion can prove there is a god? But I agree, an assignment should not depend on the behavior of someone other than the student.
psik
World Religions is as much about culture as it is about religion. And some of the "religions" covered in classes like that are non-theistic; they don't have a god or a concept of divinity. The definition of "religion" is more fluid than you think.
OP, get jiggy with the assignment. Look up the nearest Buddhist center, even if you have to make a long drive, and ask them why they consider Buddhism to be a religion if there's no god. Ask them if there are sex scandals in Buddhism (there are), and how the leadership deals with that (if it does at all). Ask if their brand of Buddhism takes little boys into the monasteries as novice monks, and how that works out for the boys. Find out what brand of Buddhism the center represents, why that brand is unique, and what they think of the other "schools" of Buddhism. Ask them if the Dalai Lama is the "pope" of all Buddhism
Really push the envelope, and get some interesting angles on the thing. My approach to boring assignments in college was to get seriously creative with them. Turn them upside down and inside out. Get subversive and have fun with it.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 06-27-2013 at 09:50 PM..
I guess as a professional with 20 years experience, I don't see how I will learn anything from this assignment. Looking at it from the point of the kids in the class is a different story.
Thanks for all the great prejorotive replies, though. People on here really show thier insecurities
Why are you taking the class if you don't consider yourself able to get anything out of it?
Also, if you have been in the professional world for two decades, this level of assignment is one you ought to be able to do in your sleep.
That's why the thought of it has him falling asleep, lol! Let's see if we can light a fire under him, and pique his interest with something totally off-the-wall. Depending on where he's located, he could visit his local Holy Roller church and interview a snake handler, and ask what that has to do with the Christian religion. He could play anthropologist, and report on it as if it were a bizarre, foreign cult (which it is). Use your imagination, OP.
This is my fourth class with yet another stupid assignment. It's a World Religions class and my assignment is to interview a local clergy member. I'm not comfortable doing that! Plus, I've left voice messages at three churches with no return calls. An assignment should NOT be dependent on something like this. Now, I get to get a B or C in this class, instead of an A. Granted this isn't as bad as some of the really over-the-top assignments I've read about in the news over the years. Teachers really don't get the real world at all.
No, Whiny, ungrateful students like YOU don't get the real world. If all you have to do is interview a clergy member...then what is the problem? You, students want everything spoon fed to you and you want it on a silver platter to boot. Who cares if you are comfortable doing that or not? If you go work at a business and you want to be the boss one day, you are going to have to get comfortable with talking to people that you might not normally talked to. This isn't really over the top, YOU are making it that way with your snide attitude. Actually better yet, you should just drop out if it's that big of a deal. Be lucky that you are doing that and not 10-15 page papers like I had to do in college.
I have to get that piece of paper to advance in my career, despite already being qualified. Hey, I'll play by the new rules. I loke this class amd the professor a lot. After seeing it from the standpoint of the average student, I get how this assignment could teach them something. I get it.
Yes, the assignment is so simple to me as to be banal, except my lingering distaste with the church (it has to be a Christian denomination for the assignment) as a gay man. That and having to depend on a response from someone who could care less about me. Still waiting in call backs...
No, Whiny, ungrateful students like YOU don't get the real world. If all you have to do is interview a clergy member...then what is the problem? You, students want everything spoon fed to you and you want it on a silver platter to boot. Who cares if you are comfortable doing that or not? If you go work at a business and you want to be the boss one day, you are going to have to get comfortable with talking to people that you might not normally talked to. This isn't really over the top, YOU are making it that way with your snide attitude. Actually better yet, you should just drop out if it's that big of a deal. Be lucky that you are doing that and not 10-15 page papers like I had to do in college.
lol I love someone whining that someone else is whiny and has it easier than they did
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lol I love someone whining that someone else is whiny and has it easier than they did 
