On Rude Students

Angry Professor blogs on the rudeness of some students in her statistics course. I'm certain her experience is not unusual, partly from my own classroom experiences, but also based on comments to her post and what I've read on other academic blogs. She follows up on one of the comments questioning her motives for offering a "gimme" quiz to the students who show up for class.

If you don't go to my lectures and choose to learn it on your own, that's fine by me. You're paying for my expertise and my assistance in learning the material, but if you'd rather struggle through it without my insights then go for it. But then don't come to me later and ask me to regurgitate my lectures for you because you realized too late that you needed my help. There are other students who do come to my lectures who need my help during office hours and they will get my first priority. Perhaps someday you will teach a course and then you will understand the frustration I and every other instructor feels when someone asks, "Did I miss anything?"

I don't know if this is the way it's always been (seriously doubtful) or if this phenomenon is the result of a shift toward treating students as customers who must be served (strongly suspect). I am certain, however, that it is annoying as hell to respectful students and to faculty.

I am left nearly speechless by the students who will, in all seriousness, contact me before class wondering "will we do anything important today?" Gee, I don't know, probably not. Do we ever do anything important? These same students will invariably complain about the less-than-A grade they receive on an assignment or exam (or the course) and insist that they didn't know I would test on things not in the book, or that the notes they borrowed didn't include this material or these instructions or whatever.

So I understand perfectly well why Angry Professor is angry. And I'll admit to skipping classes myself throughout my academic career. And I understand that circumstances arise which prevent one from attending a particular day.

I have no problem with missing a class once in a while. I have no problem with needing to leave early once in a blue moon.

I do have a problem with asking me ahead of time whether it's worth coming to class or not. I do have a problem with being noisy and disruptive while packing up to leave early.

And I do have a problem with not accepting the consequences of one's actions.

Why do some students find this so difficult to comprehend?