Not another seminar presentation!

We’re at that
point in the
semester
when all
the papers
are due

and exams are looming. The stress is
piling on and the pressure is mounting.
Now, if you have an English class

like mine, you’re going stark raving
mad, not from all that, but from the
mind-numbing, boring and mandatory
seminar presentations!

Why teachers think these are
helpful I'll never understand, but they
are right up there with the lectures
that everyone sleeps through. Every
semester this happens. I get tortured
to the point of insanity by some
sadistic, but possibly well-intentioned
teacher that thinks that student seminar
presentations are the best thing for
post-secondary education since the
introduction of computers. Far from
it! The students don’t want to do them,
but have to because the presentations
are usually worth roughly 10 per cent
of your final mark. The other students

 

 

   

in the class don’t want to hear those
presentations, yet here I am, stuck
presenting one and having another
foisted upon my ears. Today, I counted
three “out for the counts” (one with
snores!) and seven Facebookers. Those
unfortunate souls without computers
stared mindlessly ahead attempting

  

to look like they were actually paying
attention. How on earth does this
qualify as learning? The fact is it
doesn’t. The seminar seems easier for
the teacher at first, but the presentations
usually get so far off topic that they
have to work even harder to get back
on track. The things are just so damn

Aon

 

irrelevant!

That is the key to the boringness
factor of student seminar presentations.
You sit through or prepare a 15
minute presentation on a topic that
has received little or no guidance from
the professor. Then, the professor gets
up and contradicts everything said in
the presentation! What, pray tell, is
the point of this fruitless exercise? If
we are to truly engage in intellectual
discourse, then why are the students
teaching? The presentations provide
few talking points for discussion
and the presenter’s poor attempt at
spawning discussion are usually greeted
with awkward silence. That in itself
is almost as bad as the presentations
themselves! Our professors should stop
putting us through this hell. Nobody
deserves to suffer the horrors of a
student-prepared seminar presentation.
I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
I swear, like candy, they rot your brain!
It is my fondest wish that this type of
class be banished from the curriculum
like the dunce cap of old!

 

Doing the safety dance

By Nikalas Kryzanowski
Opinions Editor

A 7 ou can tell a society without
major problems by the kinds
of policies that its government

approaches. Canada is one such society

that seems to have reached the point of
over-development. It’s when politicians
and private citizens spend their time
finding ways to limit the freedoms of

Canadians by putting forward ideas

of ever-increasing and ever-regulating

safety standards on everyday activities.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry tried to
introduce a snowboard helmet safety
bill back in 2007 that called for the
mandatory use of helmets for skiers
and snowboarders. We now require
helmets for anyone on a bike; and
even trampoline safety was called in
to question at one point. Isn’t it nice to
have a guardian angel’s piercing eye
behind you, watching you and lovingly
guarding you from making the smallest
mistake?

Has the world really become much
more dangerous? Have we become
more lawsuit-oriented? Or is this age of
fear just making us paranoid?

I remember learning to ride a bike
in the mid-80s and not even wearing
a helmet to learn. It wasn’t even
something that was considered. Back

when I was a kid, falling off your bike
felt like a sort a “manly” thing to have
happen and I sure got my share of
skinned elbows.

It seems like gradually there has
been a call to treat your kids like John
Travolta from The Boy in the Plastic
Bubble. That soon enough the hard dirt
playgrounds are going to be replaced
by plush and netting, and kids will have
to go outside dressed as the Michelin
Man.

My father had even less safety
regulations surrounding him when he
was a kid. He told me stories of playing
Cowboys and Indians inside of, on

top of and around parked trains that
had stopped at the station in the small
town he grew up in. Doesn’t that sound
awesome?

Today, even in schools, peanut
butter is the enemy and plastic knives
are an object of fear. Kids have way
more allergies today than back in the
day. Why is this? There are a few
theories, but I am a firm believer
that sheltering and sanitizing kids
from the world is messing with their
immune systems. The immediate use of
antibiotics and the ultra-clean lifestyle
causes our immune systems to attack
food proteins unnecessarily.

     

Much of the real concern that’s
not letting kids be kids is about the
liability and the lawsuits that could
follow should a kid get hurt. It’s mind-
boggling to think that if someone gets
hurt on your property, you may have
to take responsibility. We live in an
age of victimhood, where people see
opportunities to cash in on injury and
since there are numerous examples
of courts rewarding stupidity, nobody
wants to allow any risks to be taken
on their watch, for fear that they’ Il
get nailed by our upside down legal
system.