Picture this: it’s the night before the first day of classes of a brand new semester. You’re finally back in Charleston with all of your friends, ready to take on all of the challenges of a new semester. You have finally recovered from finals week during a much needed Winter Break and you have new and improved motivation to succeed. And besides, it’s only syllabus week, so classes should be easy, right?
Wrong.
I am a second semester sophomore, and have never once experienced “syllabus week” as it has been fabled to me. Every semeste–without fail–I am bombarded with homework, readings and responses starting on the first day of class. In one class this semester, we didn’t even go over the syllabus until the last ten minutes of class. Instead, we started right off with a discussion of theoretical topics. After asking many of my friends and classmates, I discovered that they also face the same situation. If this is true for most students at the undergraduate level, then why perpetuate the myth of syllabus week? What kind of effect does that misnomer have on students who go into classes expected an easy first day and come out with hours of reading?
I propose that we stop making the first week of classes syllabus week, as this only leads to students’ high stress levels. Part of preparing for the first day back to class should include buying all necessary textbooks, looking over the syllabus in advance (if it has been posted before class) and mentally preparing yourself to get started on work as soon as possible. By employing these strategies, students will be ready for the semester ahead. If you walk into class on the first day expecting to put in little to no work, you won’t get much out of it. However, if you come into class with a positive mindset and the idea that you will put in the necessary work to succeed, you will be much more likely to attain that success.
So, collegiettes, it looks like spring semester is already in full swing, even though we’ve barely started the first week of classes. But don’t let that get you down! Being positive about the possibilities of a new semester will make this transition much easier–even if we don’t have the crutch of syllabus week to rely on.