Why can't I just lie around naked all day

I thought college courses would be straight-forward. You attend class to get the info you need, you're given an assignment, you work on that assignment, you complete that assignment and you turn it in. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Not so for half of my courses.
For Good and Evil, I need to do ten hours of community service, and then write a paper on it. Apparently, evil isn't an option.
For Electrics, I need to do ten hours of "load in" work - hanging and focusing lights - for any Emerson stage productions. I might fail the class because of this factor.
To get my BA, I need to work in the stage crew for two Emerson shows, one for each semester. This involves being holed up backstage, sleeping or waiting to be needed, for anywhere between five and nine hours.

Imagine taking a course in which you are only able to work on the mandatory assignments in one particular place, at randomly interspersed and randomly announced times, whether or not you have classes at the time. Imagine taking three of these courses.

Besides the fact that this is all terribly inconvenient, what the hell am I paying for? Am I paying myself to do manual labor? Isn't that the kind of thing I'm supposed to GET money for? Am I paying for the "experience"? For the shitty experience? All I'm learning is that I'd only do community service if I got credit for it, that a light used for seeing what you're doing is called a "work light", and that stage crew fucking blows. And I already knew all that.

It is nice to be able to complain about school problems, again, though.