Some of you might have noticed a few changes upon arriving on campus after the spring break.
Those of us who are on campus quite frequently are just as astonished as I am to find out that “iRead: for enlightenment, to create, and to cultivate,” among many other reasons, according to those magical signs that have sprung up, out of nowhere, as mushrooms do after a night of rain.
This idea was not born last night, or rather last week, as it may seem
It is a concept that is not quite old as dirt, like we might think, but reading and our ability to reason is one of the things that are considered to be what makes us the supreme species. Reading is actually pretty important for all areas of studies and if there is ever to be any true understanding, it starts there.
This is actually a good idea that these productive people of Prairie View have “come up with.” If everyone on campus could actually testify and claim “iRead” it would benefit the student body greatly. The retention rate would not be so low for returning freshmen and sophomores, one of the things that has an effect on the weight of our degree.
If we could all say “iRead” Prairie View would be more selective of the people who are admitted into the university and even more selective of the people who are allowed to continue their education and graduate. The teachers would be able to instruct on a level that is equivalent to the education received from schools like Texas A&M and the University of Texas who are close in proximity but are scores ahead academically. If we could all legitimately profess that “iRead,” more students would be fully prepared to succeed in graduate programs at other universities.
If the students of Prairie View could genuinely state “iRead,” then there would be no true need to put on the masks, costumes, and ever so great performance that the student body has been rehearsing, for a great portion of this semester.
If we can cram, the night before show time, and manage to perform well on the “test” then why is it not impossible for us to actually be the change that we are presenting in this obvious facade.
What does it teach students, to show them that your best only matters when someone is watching.
Is it not unacceptable for the students to be fed the lines of the ideal student, only to forget them the next day? Is it acceptable since many students are spoon fed an education and never learn how to function or survive among other scholars, outside of Prairie View?
Prairie View should be producing productive people, not producing people who are only productive at Prairie View. Same words, entirely different concepts.
Why is it that the same teachers who must search empty classrooms for teaching supplies, such as chalk, are forced to interrupt their lessons to prompt students for things that should not need to be spoken?
Could some of the money used for the props for this week’s show have gone toward things like dry-erase markers so that teachers could actually have every necessary tool to do their job, which is to teach?
Why are students urged to wear T-shirts and pins that will be just as accessible next semester, as the findings and remains of dinosaur fossils?
Why is there so much money, thousands of dollars, put into PV choice awards and Miss PV pageants and there are truly needy students who cannot afford books? Students are responsible for purchasing their books, but must they be exploited in the process?
Must those students who have to find almost impossible ways to get text books, be mocked, by finding that the school can sponsor trips to football games, by raising student and athletic fees, but cannot sponsor a few truly needy students with books?
Is it fair to the instructors, most of whom have vigorously devoted a great deal of their time to academia, to demean themselves by having to teach on a level that will not benefit the students post-graduation?
What will come of next week when we find that opening night was a huge success? Will we read more? Will there be less freshmen writing below a middle school level?
Will teachers be able to implement a diverse curriculum without the worries of students falling behind, or will they be forced to modify the syllabus so that the majority of the students in the classroom are not in danger of failing.
Will we devote just as much money to resources that improve academic ability, as we do to student activities?
It is up to students to speak up and require that these things be done; these things affect us more than anyone else involved. What will we do? We’ve got to do better!
Ebony Sowells