Beginning of Persuasive Essay

Most people who pay thousands of dollars to go to college do it because they want to get a good education. They pay to get classrooms with lots of resources and books, but most importantly, to be provided with teachers who are experts in the subjects they teach. Imagine not having a teacher in a math class, which some students say is one of the most complicated and difficult subjects to learn. The Math Emporium at Virginia Tech is essentially the school’s way of teaching math. Instead of providing students with teachers, they have computers where students sit and take quizzes based on the modules they previously read on their own. The Math Emporium is a much less effective way of teaching than having a real teacher, and classes there should be taken away.

Some people would argue that classes through the Empo give students the opportunity to complete the course on their own time. For example, if someone isn’t ready to learn the math for four days of the week because they’re too busy, they have the freedom to do it the next day instead. Although this is a reason that many people like having math classes this way, there are still quiz deadlines every Thursday and test deadlines every few weeks that you have to meet. Without a teacher there is not much structure, and it could be harder to stay on top of the work and the deadlines without falling behind. To make matters worse, the Empo has a system where if someone needs help, the student puts an orange cup on top of the computer and waits for an assistant to come to their desk. Since I have been in a Math Emporium class for the past two semesters, I have waited for help like this many times. More than once, I have had my cup on top of my computer for at least thirty minutes, before finally giving up and taking it down. Waiting to get help for that long is a waste of time, especially when there are multiple assistants. Without having a teacher, it also makes the textbook more confusing. The practice problems will provide a link that says, “click here if you need help.” Once you click the link it brings you right back to the module that obviously did not help the first time.