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Page 8 • Thursday, October 13, 2005
OPINION
The Pendul)^ |
Editorial
'A t
The Pendulum seeks to inspire, entertain and inform the Elon community by providing
voice for students and faculty as well as a forum for the meaningfid exchange of ideas-
So many events for students, so little time
Sometimes in school, teachers
force their students to take part in
activities, hoping to advance their
knowledge.
This happens a lot at Elon
University, but should it?
Should teachers force their stu
dents to go to cultural events? This
is an important topic to think
about, especially being students at
a school that religiously makes stu
dents go to cultural events.
Forcing students to learn is not
the way to go about it, and that is
what is happening when teachers
make speakers and cultural events
mandatory on campus for their
classes.
If the students should know
about it, then teach it to them in
class.
Knowledge is truly the key, but
no knowledge is gained when peo
ple are forced to go to things that
they do not want to attend.
Why do teachers force students
to go to cultural events? The teach
ers aren’t being lazy; that’s not the
point at all.
The point is the university plans
so many events throughout each
semester in order to make the
school more recognizable.
Truth be told, the school proba
bly just makes these events to
bring prestige to the school.
Students have so much to do with
their classes and other extracurric
ular activities they take part in that
they don’t always have time to go
to these speakers and events.
And when it comes down to it,
the majority of students don’t real
ly like going to these events at all.
They would much rather spend a
couple of hours playing ball with
Students have so much to do with their classes and
extracurricular activities they take part in that they don t
always have time to go to these speakers and events-
their friends than listening to an
academic talk about what he or she
has accomplished.
This leads to another issue that
this school could do something
about: money.
How much money does the
school and other groups on campus
spend bringing these people to
Elon?
This money could be used in so
many other ways, like giving
financial aid to students who might
need it.
Not all speakers are pointless
though, and sometimes students do
want to go see them. This includes
the speakers such as Walter
Cronkite, David Gergen and
Thomas Friedman. Fall and
Convocation are important to o
campus, just as they are to ot ^
schools around the nation.
That is the one time the
community should come out a
listen to a speaker, and repr®^®^
their school.
It is good to have a couple ^ ^
name speakers a year to have y® ^
students and faculty listen to,
students shouldn’t be forced to g
to poetry readings or other eveo
such as those.
If teachers are going to get
for students leaving these
early, then don’t make the
mandatory for classes.
THE PENDULUM
Elon University
Elon, N.C.
Established 1974
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Ashley Feibish, Editor in Chief
[Section Editors] >
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