Last night I was in a class where a student was acting out of line. This is notable to me because since I started college, stuff like this almost never happens. Of course it happened plenty of times in elementary, middle, and high school, but once I started college, I noticed how much more serene the classroom was- everybody did what they were supposed to. People who did not want to contribute usually did not show up at all.
But then there are some people who DO show up and DO make a scene, and I can honestly say it is more embarassing to witness than anything else. Last night one particular individual spoke up in the middle of his group’s presentation about how much he hated the book, and how he felt sorry for anyone who was forced to read it in high school. He was also being very disruptive and doing other things that just made me cringe.
What also sucked about it was how much he was pissing off the instructor, a wonderful woman who teaches a class that I find more motivating and interesting than many of the classes I’ve been taking this semester. I feel bad that she has to put up with this jerk.
You should embarrass him. Treat him like a 12-year old and tell him he’s disrupting the class and making it impossible to get the education you PAID for.
I think that in general, people are more aware that if they don’t want to be there, they don’t have to be. But I guess there’ll always be a few people who are only taking the course because it fulfills a requirement or only going to college because their parents want them to; I doubt you see any of this at the higher level courses, though.
I hated that. Here is an extreme tale from my college days.
I was taking a class through the Linguistics department that focused on bilingualism (I was a Ling. major). However, the class was also a requirement for students who wished to enter the teaching credential program. As this was a large state school, the class, therefore, was full of “re-entry” students (if you have experienced this phenomena then you know exactly what I’m talking about).
In any case, our professor (who was/is from India) was discussing the schedule for finals. Our finals period (as scheduled by the university, not by the professor) was the very last one of finals week - it was Friday afternoon at 4 pm. Anyways, one older woman (an aforementioned re-entry student) became very indignant, stating that Friday was the first night of Passover and that she would not be able to make the final. The professor replied that that was fine and could she please speak to him after class so that something could be arranged. She remained quite irate and then said:
“I mean, I wouldn’t make you eat a cow or anything!”
Dead silence followed by yours truly who said “I can’t believe you just said that.”
One would think that paying for an education meant a person would make more of an effort to GET that education. Maybe daddy is footing the bill for this particular student and he just doesn’t care, he doesn’t want to be challenged, and he doesn’t mind pissing daddy’s money away. Poor daddy.
I feel very badly for your professor and for the other students who want to be there. I feel badly for you and I wonder if this is the only class he is disruptive in but for some reason I doubt it. I saw a few of these types in my college days and it made me ill. DON’T enroll if you can’t behave and don’t bother the rest of us if daddy’s making you attend! Talk to daddy and tell him you really don’t want to take classes and further your life. Moron!
Ugh! I just had a similar incident last week. I attend night classes, and the course I’m currently in tends to draw a lot of returning students - i.e. adult students who work full time and attend classes at night.
We were watching a film and there was a group of people behind me being very disruptive - talking amongst themselves, heckling the film, rustling candy wrappers, etc. This went on for about 30 minutes, and after many other students turned to give them the evil eye I finally decided I’d had enough. I turned around and the first person I met eyes with I asked politely, “Could you please try to be quiet, it’s difficult to hear?”
He shot back with, “Child I’m a 33 year old adult and I’ll do as I please. Don’t talk to me like that.”
Hmf! Well, since the professor obviously didn’t care enough to do anything about the situation I went up during break and told him flat out that I would not continue to sit through all that racket and told him I’d finish watching the movie in my own time. I asked if I could take the test home to complete in a more peaceful atmosphere. Apparently he grew some balls after I left as there have been no further problems.
Unfortunately I’ve noticed just the opposite - this happened in high school and middle school too, but the teachers weren’t afraid to get the class under control. In college the professors seem to be under the opinion that it’s not their job to ensure the students a peaceful atmosphere to learn.
Speaking as an adult student, bad behavior is bad behavior, no matter how old the student is, and there is no excuse for the professor to step in and say something.
Right now, I’ve got freshman general-education courses, so I’ve got to deal with a bunch of apathetic 18-year-olds. The sad thing is, when I make a contribution to the (one-sided) discussion, some of them get resentful towards me, as though I am making them look bad. To which I respond: If you made contributions to class, you’d look good, too.
Talk to the professor privately about any problem students. They might not realize that the problem students are pissing off other people too or it might be the kick in the ass they need to clamp down on the problem.
There’s always one person in each of my classes that pisses me off. At least once a semester there is one person who forgets to turn off their cell phone. Twice I’ve seen people answer them. One guy was sitting in the back of one of those huge lecture rooms. He crouched down under the desk to tell the person he was in class and arranged a time for them to meet. The second time, the guy had the phone on vibrate. It went off during a presentation. He answered it and preceeded to carry on a conversation with the person on the other end. The least he could have done was step out of the room.
And you didn’t kill him? I hated people who did those kinds of things, as if they are the center of the universe and everyone else be damned! Get out out out if you’re not going to give it your all! Jesus, people annoy me!
Once a semester? I’d say someone’s cell phone goes off once a day in my classes. I’m not sure if manners have gotten worse, or if I have raised my expectations and not seen them met. I can’t believe that I’m in graduate school and there are still people without the common decency to shut up during a lecture.
I have noticed a general decrease in the apathy and unthoughtfulness of students since I came to college. There are a few however that still bother me.
Sort of relating to Ol’ Gaffer’s story: My folklore class has sort of the same arrangement in that the university gave us the last possible finals slot, but the teacher pushed it back to the previous Wednesday.
The only continuing student in my discussion brought this up in the middle of class last Thursday.
“I have a problem with the finals schedule,” she said. “The university says we are supposed to have a week before finals to study, and I know we have readings due the week before that. I don’t think we should.”
Silence.
COME ON, WOMAN…jeeze. The teacher is being accommodating enough to let you go home MORE than a week early, and you have the nerve to complain that we have a couple READINGS to do the week before?
This is the same woman who, when the teacher asked why people didn’t seem to be enjoying the class said, “Maybe because all of us feel like this is the only class we have.”
I’m sorry, when did I authorize you to speak for me? We have a little bit to read for each class. We have had two ONE PAGE, NON-CITED papers to do, and two small projects, all spread out over the course of one semester. Hardly a backbreaking amount of work…
I think the only reason that cell phones don’t go off daily in class is that most of my profs have instituted very strict policies against them. Most of them kick you out for the rest of the classtime. I’ve had profs fail you in participation, up to 25% of your grade.
Of course there was one teacher I had that allowed you to keep your phone on. He kept his on. It even rang in the middle of lecture. He would stop what he was doing to answer it.
Speaking of that professor… There’s something at my college called the Friends of Athletes. There are a group of teachers that would be very lenient on these students. This guy took it too far. In the middle of the midterm, two of the football players sat in the back talking to each other the entire time. I remember one of them asking what the other answered for number two. It was an essay exam.
Two of the boneheads that sit in the back of my anatomy class are like that…their cells phones go off daily, they chitchat, they giggle, and basically drive everyone crazy. They got kicked out of class yesterday. They thought it was quite funny.
I’ve got one in one of my smaller classes right now who acts like he never left high school. Seriously, the same stupid jokes and acting out that I heard in 10th grade. Drives me fucking insane.
Then there are the people in my Philosophy lecture who somehow always used to wind up sitting behind me and were the most obnoxious people on the planet.
“This class is stupid”
“I know, she’s so confusing”
“Why can’t she go slower”
“She didn’t explain that well at all”
All through the lecture. And then, when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, one of them started eating potato chips one at a time. Gah! I sit on the other side of the auditorium now.