Delinquency & Disdain

Hello out there!  I realize that I have been quite delinquent in my posts as of recently and I apologize.  School has loaded quite a bit on my plate in the last two weeks and obviously that is my first priority.  I have had tests, skills check-offs, and presentations occupying my thoughts entirely too much recently.  Now I am in the final week of my first semester of nursing school and am trying to squeeze studying in while trying to complete a poster for a presentation, make a PowerPoint and outline for another presentation, and remember to actually take my Communications final before Friday.  My Nursing final is also on Friday hence the reason I am trying to fit studying in as well.

All these presentations are leading me to have total and utter disdain for the idea of group projects.  It's a crock if you ask me.  I came from Wake Forest University to a community college and group projects are totally different in these two atmospheres...as is almost everything else about the education process.  At Wake, when group projects were assigned, the groups actually got together to discuss the topic and the group members actually contributed the part they were assigned because everyone in the group genuinely cared about making the best grade possible.  Community college is quite a different story.  Group projects are kind of thrown together and I have found that I tend to take the lead so that I can be sure the project is done well and my grade doesn't suffer due to someone else's lack of preparedness.  For example, I have a final outline and presentation due tomorrow and have been begging my group members to get me their information so that I may complete the outline and also so that I can include visuals in the PowerPoint that are relevant to what each group member is going to be talking about.  As it stands right now, my portion is complete...however, my classmates have yet to send me much of anything and at this point, I am ready to turn in what we have and notify my instructor via our anonymous grading of our group members that none of them have contributed anything nor demonstrated any sense of urgency about getting this presentation done.  It is quite frustrating to come from a school where people valued their education and knew they were moving on to something bigger to a school where people just assume that projects will complete themselves and are satisfied with mediocre, average grades.  I mean, as long as they pass the class, that's all that matters.  Well for me, that's not good enough. 

I am a notorious over-achiever and anyone that knows me will agree.  I like to go above and beyond and education and grades are really important to me.  I think James Cash Penney put it well when he said, "No serious-minded man should have the time for the mediocre in any phase of his living."

Thank you for listening!  Rant over!