Basically, yeah. I’d sign up for, say, English, History, and Biology. End of the semester, I’d get an A in English, a B in History, a B in Biology, and a big fat F in Underwater Basket Weaving. Then I’d have to track down the UBW teacher, whom I’d never met on account of never having been in his class, and get him to sign a bazillion forms confirming that, indeed, I had never attended a single day of his class, done a single assignment, or even knew what the hell the class was about. Deeply, deeply annoying, but about par for the course for my Alma Mater. Excellent teachers, idiot administration.
You’ve never seen my face. Believe me, I was doing them a favor. Anyway, I figured a better way to show my respect was to show that I was interested enough in their subject to learn it, which I proved by doing all the assignments well and on time. Judging by my GPA, most of my professors didn’t have a problem with it.
I’m one of the students who can’t stand the thought of being absent.
One Friday about a month ago, I blew off my Astronomy class. This was the first class I blew off all semester, and that was only because I didn’t feel like sitting through an hour of class presentations. That night I went to an art opening at the school and who did I run into? My astronomy prof.
Him: Hey, how are you?
Me: Uh…pretty embarrased actually.
Him: Why?
Me: Well, I blew off class today, and yet, here we are!
Him: (laughing) A lot of people blew of class today, don’t worry about it.
He’s my favorite Prof.
Also in my school several departments have attendence requirements. If you miss more than 4 classes, you aren’t allowed to take the final. (This is true for English, Foreign Languages, and Political Science). Probably more too.
Just about every class I took claimed this, too. The syllabus was always giving dire warnings about how missing class would eviscerate you grade, ruin your GPA, and cause your skin to break out. Almost invariably, after the first two weeks, the roll sheet would permanently vanish, and you’d never hear another word about attendance. Of course, your school might be different.
It is. My ENglish Prof takes attendence at the beginning of every class, my World Civ prof passes around the roll sheet at the beginning of every class, and my Theater prof passes around the roll sheet at the end of every class. You can almost set your clock by them.
The only one who doesn’t take attendence is the aforementioned Astronomy prof.
Interestingly, I’ve been in classes that have periodic unscheduled quizzes and classes that have attendance sheets, and the quizzes do a lot better job at getting my butt in the seat.
Then there are classes that do nothing to encourage attendance, but I just sign up for those and go to the first day.
Anyway, I figured a better way to show my respect was to show that I was interested enough in their subject to learn it, which I proved by doing all the assignments well and on time. Judging by my GPA, most of my professors didn’t have a problem with it.