I have been teaching at Cag University for three years now and upon arriving my first year, there were a few things about the school that shocked me. Okay, let's not say a few things; let's say many things. Many things about this particular Turkish, private university shocked me. Things such as not bringing a pencil, dictionary, notebook, or course book to class; respecting the teacher; respecting other students; commonplace cheating; these things still shock me at a university level. Sadly I'm learning to accept these things, and in time I'm learning how to deal with each one individually. But there is one that frustrates me to no end.
The amount of time students are allowed to skip in a year is ghastly. During their prep year at Cag, my students are allowed to skip 100 hours of classes. 100 HOURS! What a great help for those students who maybe get a terminal illness during the school year, but besides terminal illness, my American audience might wonder how a student could possibly skip that much time. Here's the shocking part. In two years, most of my students skip their allotted amount of time, usually up to 95-99 hours. I've had students at 90 hours by the semester break, and I have had at least ten students fail the prep year because they skipped more than 100 hours.
Coming from an American university, this is seriously unbelievable. My Turkish sister-in-law, who I would imagine was an excellent student who really cared about her classes, told me tonight that every year, she would skip as many hours as she was allowed! I can honestly say that in my four years at Bethel, I possibly skipped ten hours. Possibly. If I did, it would have been because of pretty serious illness. For the most part, I really enjoyed my classes and professors, and I really hated getting behind and missing class. I've told this to Turkish friends before, but they find it unbelievable. As incredible it is to me that they can skip 100 hours in a year, so is it incredible to them that I only skipped ten hours in four years.
This is just one example of a university cultural difference that I have been dealing with and trying to understand for the last two years. I have found my own ways of dealing with skipping, but it's still a hard mentality for me to grasp.
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5 comments:
Wow!!! That's crazy. What would I do with an extra 100 hours?! I could have actually skipped every course I took last fall and still been under that 100 hour limit... I can't even imagine how anyone could pass classes. And, that must be a nightmare for teachers... :(
Hi Laura,
I just read through your blog and am really enjoying reading about your experiences and life in Turkey! I especially enjoyed the Sunday Drive!!! It was great to see you in Oquawka this summer.
Lots of love, Aunt Jane
hey Laura,
it is nice to read a text about my university :)
i want to ask you a question.
if you were a Cag student,Would you come to Cag everyday ?
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I can remember that i went to home before my classes end because of a lot of flies last year! it is funny but real ! my university campus is not for students!And i can also remember that i was in spring festival last year and after festival my arms were very red because of insects!
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And also, you can say that students shouldnt mind the campus ,they should focus on lessons but it is really hard to focus on lessons there!just people who know Cag can understand me! :)
I despise attending classes too. Especially in technical fields like mine (electrical engineering). One problem is that the pace of the class rarely matches with my learning curve. I am truly retarded when it comes to some particular concepts yet others are boredom inducing to no end. So I think skipped many, many hours when I was getting my BS at METU. There were a few courses where my attendance was probably less than %20. Thankfully most profs didn't care.
Laura, I miss skipping, I despise my Latin instructor and wish I could skip, But he makes quizes every frigging class causing me to go to the class. Yet, I sometimes just tell him that I have an impromptu meeting or other errands and skip the hell out of it. Well, he doesn't really say anything since I am a faculty too. The hell with his boring class. He does not know how to teach a language. Hear my voice Seth, 'You Suck'
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