“Don’t ask me how I do it,” student Nataliz Bonnet told the
Miami Herald’s Michael Vasquez after her 6 a.m. Human Growth and Development class ended. “I just do it.”
Vasquez reports that at colleges and universities across Miami, and increasingly across the country, early-morning classes have become the norm. The classes, he says, are a response to the overwhelming demand for education that has occurred since the recession. With the demand already placed on campus buildings, early mornings were the only time that schools could accommodate additional classes.
Of course, that suits non-traditional students at these institutions just fine.
“This is the only class I can take,” English major Anais Herrera told Vasquez. Despite being of traditional-student age, at just 22, provides live-in care for her grandmother.
Bonnet, who is balancing school with work while raising a one-year old daughter, added that maintaining such a rigorous schedule requires immense dedication.
“You’ve got to have motivation, and ambition,” she told Vasquez.
Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers told Vasquez that early-morning classes are just another example of higher education institutions shaping their offerings around the needs of students.
“People go to the gym at 6 a.m. all the time,” he said. “There’s no reason why you wouldn’t go to an intellectual gymnasium at that same hour.”
