~Wtt&1 - - Hoover Library

"A High School With Dormitories"by Richard D. McCall, '68Students at Western Maryland Collegespend anywhere from one to five hours aday in structured time-wasting. This representsone to five hours which could be spentin research, study and dialogue; that is, ingetting an education.We arc not lazy; we are not frivolous.We are, in many cases, serious students.We do not wish to waste so much of ourcollege eclucation. The unfortunate fact isthat we are forced to.Every day we are forced to sit in neatlittle rows and appear to be paying attentionwhile a gentleman, whose name invartablyends with the letters, M.A., orPh.D., reads out of a notebook. Some ofus yawn, some write letters, some read atextbook (this allows us to predict whatthe man will say next), and others copydown, with varying degrees of accuracy, thewords which the man is reading. We dothis in order to write them from memoryat some future date, to give them back tothe man in return for a letter drawn inred ink. Our task is to regurgitate facts. Itis strange, is it not, that we do not justborrow the gentleman's notebook and copyverbatim his sacred utterances.Our disgust with the classroom situationgrows out of the demands which our educationmust meet in the modern world. If itcould be argued that we are preparing to.meet the future by going to classes, perhapswe could be more patient. The TwentiethCentury accepts no memorized textbook answersto its problems, however. The rest ofpagefenour lives cannot be spent memorizing andregurgitating.The present system prepares us neitherin method nor content for taking any slg,nificant creative role in the world. Insteadof giving an opportunity for individualinitiative and research, the system fosterspassive absorption of data. Instead of helpingus learn and evaluate facts and usethem in the fonnutation of new insightsand ideas, the system rewards mere memorizationof certain isolated facts which weexpect to flnd on the next test,The student is passive; we listen, weread, we memorize. Even if we wish to discussand debate there is great difficulty inflnding -cmeone with time to leave thegrade-grabbing cycle and engage in criticaldiscussion. Little wonder then that we forgetmost of what we learn two weeks afterthe test. It is a psychological fact that themore a person actually does, the more activehe is, the more he learns and the more heretains what he learns.The classroom, far from being a place ofactive thinking, is condUCive, to a remark,able degree, to sleep. There arc some whoattempt 10 blame this classroom somnabulao.n students, saying that we could, by queshomand