The Lectures and school curriculum

Lectures at Howard university could start as early as 8am in the morning.This was very convenient if you happened to live around school campus.It could be a problem though, if you stay far from campus.I had quite a few experiences with some of this early classes.The first one,was when I took a course in Public Speaking, taught by Miss Brown.The class was quite open and we had a lot of frank and open discussions.It was in this class that I first met Kevin.Anyway, it was an 8am class and the class had quite a few international students in it.There was a heated discussion about African students and their relationship with their African brothers in the US.One of the shocks that will hit you went you get to the US, is to find out that the "brothers"there are quite a whole different set of people.It,s funny because with the same skin colour, you would think they will be our natural friends right away.That is definitely not the case.I was shocked, when in one of the discussions, a student mentioned that people in Africa were responsible for selling into slavery, black people that now live in the US.It,s amazing, the difference between both cultures.In Africa, people do not even mention slave trade at all.People like myself cannot even trace a family relative to the slave trade period.Anyway,it was a big shock to me.I am a very frank person and I did my best to defend myself.I told the class that one of the things you noticed when who get into this society, is that people are not friendly at all.The response coming from Kevin,was that African students like to keep to themselves.As to their being open to foreigners, the response was"you can visit somebody anytime you want to, but they have the right to choose whether they want to welcome you or not.We did a lot of class presentations.The class helped a lot because everybody got called up to stand in front of the class, and presented an extensive history of their life.We all got to know each other.I was always under the illusion that it was only foreign students that had personal problems, but after listening to one student talk after another, that illusion totally changed.Students talked about their credit card problems,about having to pick up numerous jobs to keep up with their "shopping addictions".At the end of the semester, we all took a lot out of the class and most of us stayed friends for quite some time.I did remember quite a few people, including myself, arriving late though, for the final examinations.Luckily, the final grade was based on performance throughout the semester.School curriculum, are designed to help students go through college smoothly.Unfortunately, as students, we always think that we know best.I remember enrolling into an advance course in mathematics and battling all semester to end up with a gentleman,s C grade.As a matter of fact I actually had a D grade in the course, but after pleading with the lecturer, it was curved to a C pass grade.To be fair, at this time I was pulling a crazy 11pm to 7am shift in one of my jobs.So I could barely stay awake during the lectures.I explain all this to the professor, together with the fact that school is really tough on foreign students.Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that if you are attending college, take your time and go through it following the school curriculum.It is designed to help the students.If you are a freshman, please stick to the freshman courses.I did take some advanced classes without first taking the electives, and it was later on,when I took the electives, that I started to realise how important taking this early courses were to help you in the future.In my senior year, I remember taken a math course to try and improve on my earlier C grade.It this time, I had taken all the electives in the course.I breezed threw the class easily, as I witness some students repeat my earlier mistakes.The lecturer, at one time praise me about "providing senior leadership", after one of the test that we took.The math mystery had suddenly disappeared.The same principle applies to all the subjects.Forget about ego, go through the electives and by the time you become a junior, school will be such a breeze.For example, take the case of accounting, which was my school major.Start with principles of accounting 1&2,take intermediate accounting 1&2 and once you have mastered these, cost,management,federal tax 1&2 and advanced accounting will all fall into place.