Essay on Attendance

Attendance Policies
Students enroll to universities with a goal to pursue a higher education. At college, students must cope with different obstacles to achieve his or her academic dream. Studying for exams, and completing homework are only a few of the many. The greatest challenge for students remains as the following; maintaining attendance. Emerson College has a very strict regulation on attendance. Students are allowed to have three unexcused absenses or the grade of the student will be severely deducted. I belive that academic institution should aim to enhance the student’s experience in learning. This attendance policy, however, fails to aid in the student’s educational performance.
Mandatory attendance policy does not enhance students’ performance at school. Regular attendance can only assure the student’s presence in class. However, it does not guarantee the student’s understanding of the class material. Learning all depends on the student’s willingness and motivation. Anyone can be present in a class but can be absent in his or her mind. A student can easily walk into a lecture. He may have fullfilled the attendance requirement, but because he was not paying attention in class, he could end up getting a poor grade in his exam. A true way of measuring a student’s understanding of the course material should not be attendance but his or her performance in homework and assignments. Let me ask you a question. A student handed in an essay that was very well written. The work exemplified a true “A” work; it followed the course guideline and has presented an excellent understanding of the material. However, the student is found to have missed several classes. Should her grade be deducted solely due to her poor attendance? Does her absence in class disregards all the efforts she has made to catch up on the course material she has missed? The current attendance policy at Emerson College seems to hold a strong belief in the correlation between attendance and