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 Wendy Gaskill | The Communicator |
| Last call |
| Joseph Engle | The Communicator The classroom looks like a slaughterhouse for plastic people. There is an arm on this table, a leg on that one, a row of ears on the back counter, and two plastic men standing up in the front of the room. “This is the gluteus minimus,” said SFCC Anatomy and Physiology instructor Gary Brady while pointing to the backside of a life-sized dummy. Brady went on to explain about the muscle amid an avalanche of Latin. This is Anatomy and Physiology, and it is almost 8 p.m. Starting at 7:30 p.m., Brady’s Anatomy and Physiology lab class is the last show in the evening at SFCC. The class meets twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday. Lecture starts at 6 p.m. and runs till the lab portion starts at 7:30 p.m. It is 9:30 p.m. by the time the class is over, long after most students have gone home. Night classes offer an opportunity for students who work during the day, to work toward a degree as well. An opportunity that if this class is any indication, is not being wasted. There are 24 seats in the lab and almost 30 students. In the lecture portion of the class that number is doubled. According to Brady, in his past 16 years of teaching here, the Anatomy and Physiology classes have always been full or overloaded. Andrea Nead, 31, a third year nursing student, has a lot in common with other students in the room. Nead is a wife, mother of two, and holds down a full time job. She credits her success in the program to many factors. “I have a great job that helps me (and I have) the support of my family,” Nead said. “This is what I want to do.” Nead is also going to school at Eastern Washington University, but she chose to come back to SFCC for Anatomy and Physiology. Nead said that Brady’s class structure makes the difference. “His teaching is so straightforward, he is very clear on what you need to do,” Nead said. At the back table, a model leg stands up on a fleshless foot, all muscle and tendon and sinew. Second year nursing students Katie Sullivan, Keli Wood, and Kerry Fierro are sitting around it, here and there one of them points something out using the technical name. This is a class, but it has the precise, scientific air of a doctor’s office. “You don’t go to night school unless you are pretty serious,” Sullivan, 37 said. “You don’t go to night school because your parents told you to go to college.” Sullivan has a full time job. So does everyone around this table. According to Wood, 22, she utilizes one of the most effective tools in the working student’s arsenal. Lots of coffee. “(This class) makes me more tired at my job,” Wood said. “I already worked ten hours today,” Fierro, 41, said. According to Sullivan, the class is very practical. “You don’t feel like you are jumping through hoops,” Sullivan said. The atmosphere is different in this class. Students talk, and laugh, they roam around freely, but its not the screaming free-for-all chaos you might expect from a class left to its own devices. According to Matthew Nutting, 28, this is to be expected from night classes. “They tend to be more relaxed than some of the day classes with some of the younger people,” Nutting said. Nutting who also has a full time job during the day, says that having classes some classes at night has made his life much easier. He expressed a concern that some night classes are no longer offered. “I would like to see more available,” Nutting said. At the end of the day, Brady is the last one to go home. He turns off the lights, locks the doors and walks back to his car usually the last lonely automobile in the parking lot. He has taught both day and night classes, but for now he teaches only night classes and wouldn’t have it any other way. “I love the evening,” Brady said. “There is more peace and quiet.” |