Keep or Drop This Class?

[Rev. Rye]

Hi, people! In August, my mother was informed of the fact that my Fiction Writing Degree would take longer than she thought it would. She then insisted that I try to get my requirements out of the way as quick as possible. Besides 3 Fiction Writing Advanced classes (I am not making this up), I only had two requirements left: another Fiction Writing class (either Critical Reading and Writing) and a U.S. Pluralism class. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and looked for a class which fulfilled both requirements, and my choices were two: one called "American Voices" which included several Ethnic-American authors including Nathanael West (one of my all-time faves) which would have been so late it would have made commuting back to Skokie very hard. The other one was a "CRW: Women Writers," taught by a Mrs. S, who was a pioneer in the Fiction Writing department. I chose the latter, much to my dismay.

We're focusing almost solely on one book: "To The Lighthouse." The big problem: not only is the book fucking boring, but, essentially, the class pretty much consists of reading the book aloud, and writing little journal entries based on what we've just read. As you might guess, this only exacerbates how boring the book is, but it gets worse, my brothers, because we've spent three consecutive weeks going over the same three chapters (Book 1, chapters 7-9), and I'm almost certain that the frustration is making me crack. A week ago, I spent almost the entire break period standing in front of a 12th story window and at one point I unlatched it (but did not open it), but now it's lessened into becoming mere anxiety attacks. But my parents are still in favor of my toughing out the class, but I'm not sure about what might happen if I do.

So, I'm asking you guys for advice: What should I do? I've created a huge list of reasons for and against dropping the class. I have until October 28 to decide whether or not to withdraw from the class.

Keep
* Get US pluralism credit.
* Only Time I get to see Maggie (a girl I like that I see just before class.)
* My parents want to spend as little money at College as possible.
* Maybe the Upass [free CTA transfers] could get cancelled if I drop it.
* I've spent 6 weeks with the class.
* Consequences of Withdrawal unclear. [Actually, to quote my faculty advisor, As far as the financial consequences of withdrawing, the school charges the same amount for between 12-16 credit hours so there should be no change in your bill. A "W" will appear on your transcript when you withdraw from a course but it does not affect your financial aid. If you habitually withdrew from classes you may have a completion rate issue as students are required to complete 67% of all the courses they register for each semester. I do not believe this is an issue for you.]
* Parents want it.
* Makes me a full-time student.
* At least it's not Jane Austen
* Hard to fight against the teacher.
* Gives me a new appreciation for Margaret Atwood. [At least Margaret Atwood gave me material to work with; Woolf doesn't.
* I doubt Mum will ever forgive me for withdrawing.
* Maybe Lily will snog Mrs. Ramsay. (who am I kidding?) [These are characters in the novel with palpable lesbian subtext]
* Four hours in class is four more hours I spend with other people.
* I don't know how I'm doing in the class. [The teacher refuses to give me any feedback]
* Teacher is certainly a pioneer in this college. [I've learned from my tutor that she's heard she doesn't know what she's doing.]

Drop
* Keep mental health intact.
* Teacher is going senile.
* To the Lighthouse is boring and unrelatable. [I've read books on particle physics that are more relatable than this book]
* Teacher losing her hearing.
* Can still withdraw from the class for a couple weeks.
* Teacher wants journals to focus on minor things. [Like, of all things, punctuation.]
* Mental health professional wants it. [After telling him about the window incident, my psychiatrist demanded I withdraw from class and upped my Abilify dosage. My therapist wants to leave the decision up to me, but is willing to make the decision to pull out for me.]
* Still don't know what to focus on for final essay. [The closest I've come is to focus on how, against all odds, the oppressive jackass philosopher still seems like the most sympathetic character]
* I would have taken the American Voices class if not for the logistics.
* Others seem to like it, I don't. [Fun fact, one student actually told me I could withdraw when I complained about the teacher]
* I don't know how I can stand 10 more weeks of this!
* Did I mention I don't like the teacher?
* 6 weeks and we're still ¼ of the way through the book.
* Teacher is very defensive about her repeating herself.
* Doctor had to increase my Abilify dosage to help me cope with this class' stress. [Spoiler alert: It made me sick.]
* Haven't had such a bad relationship with my teacher since Fiction II caused an actual nervous breakdown.
* Somehow, the class where I have to drudge up past traumas (Prose Forms, an autobiography class) is one of my less frustrating classes.
* I still can't see why Virginia Woolf is considered a great novelist. [Apparently, it all has to do with style, and not substance]
* Teacher doesn't want us to criticise the novel. [Seriously, she expects us to like the novel]

Any thoughts?

[thesummerqueen]

Drop it.

I could go into a long explanation, but basically I work full time and I took two summer schedule classes over our summer semester (8 weeks instead of 16, so double the work). I dropped one and took the "F" solely because it was that or my job.

School isn't worth your mental health, ever. Especially if the class is that nonsensical.

My class that I dropped was "Insects and Diseases" and consisted of the teacher giving us print outs of the powerpoint he was going to show, then reading the powerpoint word for word and not adding anything to it. There were no notes to take, nothing to learn. We also had to look for samples of classes of diseases or insects - very hard to do if you work full time anyway, and doubly so if you're not trained to spot them or work in a field that encounters them. I would bring in things I suspected of pests and he'd say "no. no. no." to every one, and then complain that I should be able to find them on my job site (I work at the office of a galvanizing company - we don't fucking have vegetation near an 800° vat of molten zinc).

I tell you this because I want you to know that some teachers are fucking cunts and ridiculous instructors. Drop it and do something else.

[festive1]

It sounds like a poorly taught class... drop it... and I did two minors in college, so I'm always up for extra classes.

[Minimalist]

Keep it. The trick is to get your degree and move on.

Education has been reduced to a commodity in our society anyway. No one gives a rat's ass what classes you take and the odds are that anything you replace it with would suck too.

[Tino]

It sounds like you're afraid to learn anything new. Take the class and read the fucking book.

[Violet]

"* Maybe Lily will snog Mrs. Ramsay. (who am I kidding?) [These are characters in the novel with palpable lesbian subtext]"

Wait what?

[Rev. Rye]

It sounds like you're afraid to learn anything new. Take the class and read the fucking book.

Believe me, if I felt like I was learning something, I wouldn't have posted this thread.

"* Maybe Lily will snog Mrs. Ramsay. (who am I kidding?) [These are characters in the novel with palpable lesbian subtext]"

Wait what?

Okay, well, it's one-sided, but it's still obvious.

[thesummerqueen]

Keep it. The trick is to get your degree and move on.

Education has been reduced to a commodity in our society anyway. No one gives a rat's ass what classes you take and the odds are that anything you replace it with would suck too.

You're sort of right, but if he drops one class he can move to another easily enough and still get the degree with a lot less stress. I waited too long to drop mine, but if he is still within the no penalization date, he'll be fine.

[Tino]

It sounds like you're afraid to learn anything new. Take the class and read the fucking book.

Believe me, if I felt like I was learning something, I wouldn't have posted this thread.

I think you missed my point. You're working on a degree in writing fiction. "To The Lighthouse" is considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, by an important author. There's a strong psychological dimension to it, which is probably why your teacher is having you write journal entries - the point of the book is introspection rather than plot. But it sounds like you're closed to getting anything from the discussion. Maybe the problem is that you are boring, not the book. It doesn't sound like you're cut out to be a writer. I suggest you switch to vocational training in HVAC repair.

[thesummerqueen]

And plenty of music critics think the Beatles were fucking awesome and I think they're shite.

What a twat thing to say.