By Mary Best
Opinion and Advisory Editor
As liberating as it is to have practically limitless freedom in college, the glory of it all fades away when students face penalties for caring about what happens to that precious freedom.
Tuesday afternoon brought a dilemma — do I go to my 1 p.m. class to receive information about my midterm and avoid a penalty for skipping, or do I stay home and listen to President Obama’s address regarding the Oct. 1 government shutdown?
That’s one unfair, pressure-ridden choice I have been saddled with too many times this year.
When the Boston Marathon bombings happened, I had about five minutes to process the news before being forced to devote 90 minutes to an in-class editing session. It was a room full of journalism majors — some with family in the Boston area — who were sternly encouraged to focus on how not to write a lede instead of our buzzing Twitter feeds and racing minds. Despite instigating a class discussion about what happened, we were discouraged from continuing to care until class was over.
Since when did caring about breaking news make me an irresponsible student? It’s just appalling to be penalized for wanting to pay attention to things outside the Bona Bubble, especially since a large part of my education the past three years has cultivated an undying itch for answers when it comes to breaking news.
Pope Francis I’s election proved to be another alarming example of information discouragement. The pope had been chosen minutes before I arrived to my March 13 class, and after a very brief announcement of the new pope, we resumed class as always.
That class was Catholic-Franciscan Heritage.
Call me crazy, but the appointment of a new pope (while we’re attending a Franciscan university) is a current event that should trump religious tales from the days of yore.
Granted, not everyone in a given class might care about breaking international or national news as much as I do, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to follow coverage while in class.
Something as important as a terrorist attack or, say, the government shutdown of a major world power which we all happen to live in, should take precedence over a 90-minute lecture.
I’m not saying we abandon or avoid education whenever we feel like watching CNN. But if wanting to watch a presidential press conference would count against your attendance record, then professors should be open to the idea of letting some of the class time be devoted to watching the coverage.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard adults say, “you don’t care about anything about the government” to attack my generation. Sorry to disappoint, but it’s rather difficult to pick up the pieces of our broken economy when we’re required to focus on relearning what happens when a ball rolls down an inclined plane.
Regardless of the news, the choice between perfect attendance and avoiding ignorance is not fair, especially when our generation is constantly encouraged to get more informed about national issues and world affairs.
Being charged by older generations with the responsibility of fixing our country’s government is a stressful task — don’t make us regret the choice to invest ourselves in it.
bestmk10@bonaventure.edu
