2008 Woodie Awards
You need more time!
Cameron Ross
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Opinion
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Students with jobs have hectic lives, because their schedules are very intense. Some college instructors recommend two or three hours of studying for every hour a student is in class.
A seven-day week totals 168 hours. Most students have (at least) part-time jobs, but many students work full time. If a student works in the vicinity of 40 hours per week, that leaves them 128 hours left over.
Of course, one must subtract the number of hours a student spends in class, which is probably in the area of 15 hours, on average. With three hours of studying for every hour a student spends in class, that adds up to 45 hours a week of studying.
Subtract those 60 hours devoted to school from the 128 hours and you're left with 68 hours. Recently, doctors have come to a general consensus that people should sleep about nine hours every night, which would total 63 hours of sleep per week.
Here is the problem: Students spend so much time going to class, studying, and working that they only have five hours remaining for the time it takes to eat, bathe, and travel to and from work and school. There is also the "dead" time between classes at school, waiting in line at the supermarket to buy food, going to the bank to deposit a paycheck, dropping off rent, brushing teeth, and all of the other daily requirements of being a human being, not to mention relationships.
With the five remaining hours, a student could manage perhaps the most basic miscellaneous duties in life under most circumstances. It leaves absolutely no free time for many people.
Students with jobs are expected to perform adequate double-duty at their often times torturous customer-service jobs and in their college courses. Now, it is honest to presume that not all students spend 45 hours a week studying. Even so, the basic principle of such lofty expectations is still brutal for young people attempting to discover their personalities, when they don't have personal time to reflect on their development.
A seven-day week totals 168 hours. Most students have (at least) part-time jobs, but many students work full time. If a student works in the vicinity of 40 hours per week, that leaves them 128 hours left over.
Of course, one must subtract the number of hours a student spends in class, which is probably in the area of 15 hours, on average. With three hours of studying for every hour a student spends in class, that adds up to 45 hours a week of studying.
Subtract those 60 hours devoted to school from the 128 hours and you're left with 68 hours. Recently, doctors have come to a general consensus that people should sleep about nine hours every night, which would total 63 hours of sleep per week.
Here is the problem: Students spend so much time going to class, studying, and working that they only have five hours remaining for the time it takes to eat, bathe, and travel to and from work and school. There is also the "dead" time between classes at school, waiting in line at the supermarket to buy food, going to the bank to deposit a paycheck, dropping off rent, brushing teeth, and all of the other daily requirements of being a human being, not to mention relationships.
With the five remaining hours, a student could manage perhaps the most basic miscellaneous duties in life under most circumstances. It leaves absolutely no free time for many people.
Students with jobs are expected to perform adequate double-duty at their often times torturous customer-service jobs and in their college courses. Now, it is honest to presume that not all students spend 45 hours a week studying. Even so, the basic principle of such lofty expectations is still brutal for young people attempting to discover their personalities, when they don't have personal time to reflect on their development.