As I finished signing up for a summer class, I knew deep down that my mornings were gone for the next few weeks.
Pierce College offers classes to be taken at a rapid pace over the summer between June and August or over the winter in January.
The classes usually meet four days a week, and the instruction moves at an accelerated pace.
So for students that could mean weekly tests on rapid fire lectures, short due dates on papers or projects and long hours spent in a classroom followed by mounds of homework.
Take an English class for example, an essay could be assigned on the first day and due the next week. For a math or science class, a new chapter or subject could be taught every class meeting.
For students who need time to let things develop the class could be moving too rapidly that they are soon left in the dust trying hard as they might to keep up.
Not to mention the students who work as well as go to school, this could mean a full week of class followed by work and then the vast amount of schoolwork forced upon them by the class itself.
Leaving a student with late nights and little sleep could eventually land a student behind as they struggle to balance all the facets of their lives. For teachers the intersession classes can be equally daunting, Having to shrink down their lectures to be able to cover every section of their lesson plan.
Also the shortened time frame does not allow for students to truly comprehend dense material as it is often condensed to accommodate the time allotted.
Teachers often do not only teach just one class, as students often do not take only one class leaving teachers with many late nights to grade papers, prepare lectures or get their lesson plans organized.
Pierce also only offers a few classes of each section over these intersession time frames, primarily basic classes, and students may have to adjust schedules to be free to take such classes.
Last summer I took two classes over summer and I frequently found the pace dumbed down to fit the five week semester. But yet the classes required mounds of homework, such as an essay assignment due almost every other day or a chapter of reading each night to be prepared for the next day’s class.
For some classes the teacher is forced to assign a large amount of homework or reading just to get by, and some students prefer in class discussion or lectures to the reading of a book.
