Not every student is rolling in loan money
LAST TUESDAY, I went to class ready to learn. I sat myself square in the front row, pulled out my notebook and pen, and got into full-on concentration mode. Fifteen minutes later—and 10 minutes late, I might add—my dishevelled professor finally waltzed into class and quieted everyone down. Beginning his lecture, he asked the class to pull out their textbooks and wrote a few dates on the board. Turning back to the now silent class, he pointed at little ol’ me and demanded to know whether I’d simply forgotten my book or not bothered to bring it.
While I answered him politely enough at the time, quickly explaining that I’d not yet had a chance to obtain the book, I’ve since been fuming about the incident. Who the hell does this professor think he is to make an example out of me in front of the entire class, and how much money does he think the average student actually has on hand to pay for books?
Taking four classes this semester, I have a list of no fewer than 23 books to obtain in the first week of classes. Yes, 23 different books, all of which I am expected to purchase within 48 hours of attending my first lecture of the year despite two-hour-long lines outside and inside the bookstore and only one paycheque to accommodate my extensive list of reading materials.
Sure, I could have gone into the bookstore ahead of time and picked up a few works with my last paycheque to avoid paying for them all at once, but that plan was quickly blindsided by the fact that half of my professors have declared they do not “believe” in email and the other half being too unprepared to actually order enough books for the entire class.
Check my grade point average: I am a damn good student. I go to class, I read ahead, and I finish almost every single assignment upwards of a week before they’re due. Of all the students to pick on, I feel strongly I may have been the least deserving in that entire class. Sure, I had no book that second day to pull out when I was told to, but neither did about 50 other people in the room.
Is this the thanks I get for actually coming to class? Screw you, professor. Try picking on someone with your own income.
—Jaclyn Lytle
