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Unnecessary but Required Programs

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Unnecessary but Required Programs Empty Unnecessary but Required Programs

Post  Chibi Sun May 30, 2010 2:21 pm

I'll start off with the English area for culinary arts, we have to take English I and if we failed the English portion of the entry exam Developmental English. That's fine and all, a single English class is nice to help refresh us on writing skills so we don't sound like dumb-asses when we write and is the general standard to have in the general education slot of any college. However, we are also required to choose a second(third if you had Developmental English) English class which is a choice between English Literature and Writing or Creative writing. Both classes go over Literature (fiction, drama, poetry, etc) basically the things that would only be of use to you if you planned on teaching those areas or in a game show. So I feel that in culinary, we only need the basic writing skills so why are we paying extra money and being forced to take a useless course in order to graduate? It irritates me to no end that we have to take these classes. I had to take both, I tried Creative Writing first and couldn't keep up with the workload along with my 4 other classes ( all of which had a hefty amount of homework in and I wasn't proud of most of the grades I got because of the workload). I waited a quarter(due to the workloads I knew was required of the classes I had to take) and am now taking English Literature (I was hoping for a more manageable workload). I've been sourly disappointed, the teacher (Ms. McBride) is nice enough but I think she is oblivious to the fact that we have other classes. I don't have much room to complain in that sense, my other two classes have little work to be done but I've seen others struggle and at times myself. Take the first project for example, it was a group project(warning sign there, these tend to never work out well or at all in some cases). Fine, I could deal with it, the group that had assembled to be in my group where nice enough people and pretty decent about work. This was true until one member dropped out and Ms.McBride replaced her with two new people, one who was a lazy bum ( I swear I don't think he ever came into class sober, was always late even from breaks and barely did any work) and the other was a somewhat rude guy who could hardly speak English (no offense to people of different racial backgrounds but urgh >< I hate trying to work with people I can't understand T^T I spend the most time going over his work and unable to understand what he was trying to say had to bullshit some things at the last minute) Yeah this happened with only two weeks before the project was due>< we barely got it thrown together last minute and got a semi ok grade on it. It is now about three weeks from the end of the quarter and the workload is HUGE, I'm not exaggerating this is the most work we've had all quarter. Here's the rundown:
-Three reaction papers (each 1-2 pgs long) (not bad, this is fine in itself...)
-1 author review in a brochure format (yes, a brochure format like we're advertising the bastard author of our choice)
-Read 29 Poems(they are not of our choice but rather given in a nifty handout so we can keep track)
-Read a given chapter(also in the handout) and make notes and an in-depth interpretation and discussion on 3 poems from the given chapter to be presented during the last week (a.k.a I'm too lazy to make a lesson or some so you guys make one).
-Study for the final quiz and of course the final exam.
-Project 3, titled "Design-O-Project". Basically we design our own project based on two criteria: 1)Utilize some aspect of your current major of study. and 2) Utilize a minimum of 6 works discussed in class to include: 2 dramatic texts, 2 fictional texts and 2 poetic texts.
We are also required to have a 3-5pg paper explaining our project, a power point and making handouts along with a "keepsake" (so people remember our project)

Is it just me or is that a LOT of work to get done in 3 measly weeks? Another thing all the work in this class(and in Creative Writing) I've been trying to relate them to my field (Culinary Arts) and have been unable to do so. Seriously, this slot is just being used to fill in time and credit hours. It could benefit to replace it with more cooking classes or perhaps better computer skills class (yeah we use a LOT of Excel documents I've discovered and it would be nice to learn exactly how it works through and through rather than the measly briefing we had in Computer Literacy). -__- Just saying, that time and money could definitely be utilized to benefit the student better through either more classes or maybe taking that money and putting it into our commonly broken down and insufficient kitchen equipment..
Chibi
Chibi
Has Appeased the Forum Gods
Has Appeased the Forum Gods

Posts : 54
Join date : 2010-03-03

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