Senior government and politics and history major
The university’s junior English class is an affront to humanity. It is an insult to anyone who attended high school and to anyone who ever successfully filled out a college application — which, in theory, is anybody attending this university. Moreover, it is an insult to anyone who has ever read a book or a newspaper, an insult to anyone who can spell the smallest of words or form the most basic of sentences. For English, history and journalism majors, whose chosen fields are research- and writing-intensive, junior English is more than insulting — it is doubly redundant.
If you’ve ever stepped foot in a junior English classroom, you know just how painful and useless the experience is. A lecturer, whose soul died the moment he or she realized he or she was teaching junior English, is forced to drone on and on about just how important the comma is in everyday life to a room full of people.
Two-thirds of the class actually needs the information but is too bored to care; the other third, already having learned the material several times since elementary school, has zoned out. Junior English is an excessively painful experience, and nobody should be forced to participate in it.
Except, not really. We all know this isn’t necessarily the case. Some people, somehow, have managed to successfully evade what little education it takes to help people learn how to write basic sentences. Some people in some majors do not have to write anything other than numbers most of the time, and that is fine. There probably should be some kind of class to teach them how to do so.
Perhaps we could call it “English 101.” Should that not suffice, they could perhaps take another class two years later. Call me crazy, but that seems as though it would work. There might even be some merit to the notion of teaching students how to write cover letters and resumes, but that should probably be taught to freshmen, so they can apply to internships earlier in their college careers — and more successfully.
But the idea that a combination of high verbal SAT scores, as well as getting a 4 or 5 on an AP English Language exam, exempts one from having to take freshman English and not junior English is absurd, especially while those not gifted with basic English language skills were able to take a class earlier in their college career and be exempted from the junior English requirement by virtue of earning an “A.”
This is a ridiculous notion, that kids who were not able to test out of ENGL 101 could test out of junior English by virtue of getting an “A” in a simple class while students who tested out of ENGL 101 because of their superior English skills are then forced to take junior English. It’s mind-boggling that high-achieving freshmen should be punished by being forced to take a class that is not a requirement for lower-achieving students.
The idea that there is no way for all students to test out of this requirement, or to prove competency via another research or writing course, is absurd and appalling.
I know I said once that the lack of Coca-Cola products on this campus was my biggest beef with this university, but that was hyperbole — it was folly. In some manner of post-traumatic memory lapse, I forgot about the deep pain inflicted on my psyche by junior English. Worried about your English competency? Read a book — it might help.
Joshua Dowling is a senior government and politics and history major. He can be reached at dowlingj@terpmail.umd.edu.
