Toefl: Practice 01

Should going to class at school be optional or required?

Whether going to class should be optional or required depends on situations. But basically, class participation should be required, but that should always depends on student's decision. Here are advantages and disadvantages of each sides.

Optional class participation makes students do something else, what we learn in classes are not always necessary or important. Sometimes, it becomes a key elements of success because students will do something that is not consist of what they learn in school, but consist of their major and something else. Also, when the class itself is useless, or teacher is not encouraging, or students can do it by their own, I think students can skip the class. With time is limited, and considering the diversity of people, it is not wise to force students to attend the classes.

Mandatory class participation can bring students to a certain level of ability. Not like I mentioned above, most of students are not mature to skip the classes, those students tend to skip not because they are capable, but they just want to have some fun outside. In that case, it is so much efficient to force students to come to the classes. Students will definitely appreciate this later in the future. But of course, this makes top-notch students boring, and limit their progress. That is a waste of time for them.

For these reasons, I suggest a mixed style of class participation. Classes should basically be required to go for most of students, but for some smart students, they are allowed to not to come to classes after they showed their ability to the teacher. Also, teachers don't have to give those an exam if it seems not necessary. I think this type of class boost student's competition, that will in turn boost their progress.