Just as a bit of a disclaimer, I understand the idea that as college students, we are expected to be a bit more proactive when it comes to getting help and completing assignments. I don’t, however, think it’s fair to assume that I demonstrate the competency of a veteran scholar in a subject in which I have no real prior experience.

I’m turning the college-students-think-they-know-everything idea on its head here, and claiming that I, in fact, am absolutely clueless when it comes to some of my classes.

That being said, I don’t mean to imply that this is an excuse to not do your readings and then come to class and ask stupid questions. When your teachers in elementary school said there were no stupid questions, they were lying. There most definitely are stupid questions, and if you ask them, your classmates in possession of half a brain will probably roll their eyes back into their skulls and start wishing for their happy place. If you have a stupid question and you know it, you should probably ask it after lecture or in office hours. Spare your classmates.

That also being said, I wholly resent professors who don’t want to help, or who make you feel bad about daring to ask for such a thing. If you don’t want to help me, then I don’t see the point in the institution of college or supposedly higher learning. If you are unwilling to offer me more than your lectures, then I may as well just stay home and read the textbooks that you’re making me pay hundreds of dollars for anyway. I know people can’t advocate the tutoring opportunities available to students enough, but that only counts for so much. Help from the professor is one of the most valuable tools a student should have access to.

I can see how it would be difficult for a professor to provide help to each student individually, particularly in classes with a large number of students, but I also maintain that there aren’t necessarily all that many students who care enough to seek help.

Students who opt not to do the required readings and assignments have no right to seek help — if you choose not to do your work, then you have no business complaining that you don’t understand. I’m willing to bet that the number of students that do their work and still want additional help is pretty manageable. I’m also willing to bet that any professor can instantly tell if a student has done the readings in a one-on-one situation. If the student hasn’t, then refuse to assist him or her. That’s easy enough, isn’t it?

One of the most difficult transitions in college is that, with little or no guidance, we are thrust from a structured world of required classes and minimal specialization into a world of seemingly endless choices. It’s only natural that people will want or be forced to try things that they have no prior experience in — that’s why the ability to get help is so important.

Expecting students who really have no experience in a particular field to demonstrate specialized knowledge from day one is not only unreasonable, it’s about as helpful to the students as throwing books written in Mandarin at an English major. Realism is a beautiful thing — sometimes students who do all their work are still going to have questions, and it’s the responsibility of the professors to answer them.