Upon to the question that which is better, university students should be required to attend classes or going to classes should be optional for students, different people have different opinions. Attending class has its advantages, but at the mean time, it has many disadvantages, too. In my point of view, I would prefer optional attending school. There are many reasons supporting my view.
The main reason why I prefer optional attending school is that not all classes are suitable for every student. For example, the class is about comparison of American and English literature. Someone is a national student who just arrived to America from China and his listening is not adequate for this class. What do you think he should do? Attending this class with nothing understood or attending some language course at first? Obviously, he or she should solve his or her language problem as soon as possible. Under the circumstances, it is not proper to compel every body to attend this class.
Another important reason why I like optional is that by this way students can study more efficiently. As much as I know, not all curriculum schedule accords with everybody’s habit. For example, physics class is arranged at two o’clock in afternoon and it is the hardest curriculum for me, meantime, what makes it worse is that I am easy to get drowsy at this time. So should I go to physics class at 2:00pm or should I choose another time such as 8:00am to attend this class? Of course I will choose latter. Everybody knows that you will do you best at the right time.
Optional is superior in another way, that is developing your self-study ability. The most important thing we should gain in university is not knowledge but how to gain knowledge. So the self-study capacity is very important. Optional can help you obtain this capability.
As the proverb says “everything has two sides”, there are also some advantages in being required to attend class, such as preventing students’ laziness, systematical study and so on. But if all the factors are contemplated, going to school optionally carries more weight than the other. So I agree with the view of going to school optionally for students.