With the recent huff over college students not learning a darn thing (45% Of Students Don't Learn Much In College), I figured it was time to offer what goes on in the mind of a college professor. This is what I care about and don't care about in class:
1. DON'T CARE if your cell phone goes off, as long as I get to answer it. These days, I'm having trouble distinguishing incoming calls from texts. Droid!
2. DO CARE when you distract other students. This coming from someone who as a college freshman once launched a mini toy helicopter which circled the classroom and soft crashed on his professor's head. I was surprised and relieved that the professor didn't get all Cornell prof on me.
3. DON'T CARE if you text or surf the web in class (except during exams). Show me that you are a multi-tasker, especially if I have nothing relevant or funny to offer.
4. DO CARE that you view writing as a craft (not as a "spell check" exercise). True story: In a legal document, an attorney asked the judge for a delay in his case because he was undergoing a delicate medical procedure on his back: Disk surgery. However, he mistakenly typed a different four letter word that looked like DISK, inserting an unfortunate "C" rather than the needed "S." Spell check won't catch that!
5. DON'T CARE if you make fun of my New York accent. My contracts class still doesn't know if I was referring to a pawn shop or a porn shop.
6. DO CARE that you take critical thinking exercises seriously. It's more important for you to think your way out of a legal dilemma than to remember that incorporeal hereditament is an inchoate or intangible right.
7. DON'T CARE if you walk in late or fall asleep in class. I will always give you the benefit of the doubt when you show up -- that you got stuck in traffic or just pulled a graveyard shift at work.
8. DO CARE that you get the job done. Just like in the real world, showing up for exams and meeting deadlines are critical -- except in emergency situations, detailed in the exam question below.
Finally, your professors really do care that you studied something meaningful in college. Years from now, hopefully you'll be able to look back fondly on a time when our expectation was for you to laugh hard and learn a lot.
YOUR FINAL EXAM:
This morning on the way to our exam, Marcel purchased coffee at the drive-through window of a local burger establishment. With the car stopped, he placed the cup between his knees and opened the lid to add cream. Accidentally, he knocked the contents of the cup onto his lap, and hot coffee soaked through his sweat pants. He screamed: "Help me, I'm burning, and I've got a test in 20 minutes!" After completing his exam, Marcel headed straight to the hospital, where doctors treated his third degree burns. He then sued the burger joint for failing to warn him that extremely hot coffee can rip through flesh. A jury awarded Marcel $100,000 in compensatory damages, but also found him to be 75% responsible and the defendant 25% responsible for the accident. How much money would Marcel be permitted to recover if the defendant does not appeal this verdict?
a. $100,000
b. $75,000
c. $25,000
d. $0ANSWER: If you chose letter "c," then you understand the legal concept of comparative
negligence. In most states, a plaintiff's award is reduced by the percentage of fault assigned by the jury for an accident. However, in my state, if a plaintiff is found to be 50% or more responsible, then that plaintiff would recover nothing from the $100,000 verdict. Thus, the correct response would be letter "d." Tricky, but this question highlights the importance of knowing your state laws.
Perry Binder is a legal studies professor who blogs about teaching and humor at Crazy Classroom. Follow Perry's tweets @Perry_Binder.
Thank you, and all other professors intelligent and compassionate enough to understand that life exists beyondd the hallowed halls.
For two months, one semester, it became necessary for me to travel two hours each way to care for a gravely ill family member. I was late for my morning class several times due to transportation issues, and as I was aldready getting, at most, 5 hours sleep, it wasn't tenable for me to leave earlier and still function, much less retain any information (I did, however, manage to remain awake and attentive).
I will always be grateful to that early morning professor for his kindness, and for not making my life more difficult than it already was at the time. He assigned my grade on the basis of my work and my exam scores, and was also kind enough to e-mail me at the end of the semester to let me know that I had received the highest score in class that semester. Support for your number 8.
1. I DO care if your cell phone goes off. I tell all those expecting calls to place their CP's on buzz and then take the call in the hallway.
3. I DO care if students use electronics during the class period. Hopefully, what we are discussing is relevant to their education
7. I DO care if a student walks in late. It is disruptive to our discussion and is usually a sign of disrespect. College classrooms are not temporary motels. If a student falls asleep ( which is a rare occurrence ), I tell someone else to wake him.
Quite frankly, I am somewhat concerned that Mr. Binder not only accepts the above activities in his classroom, but also assumes that other professors feel the same way.
- cellphones are the rare diversion which add humor to class when I answer it (it also gets others to mute their phones)
- Actually, many of my students take notes on laptops and look up cases which are relevant to the discussion
- I work at a mostly commuter campus where parking is tough and getting to class is a challenge
FYI - The original title of this article was "What A college prof cares about..." and changed by the editor to "What YOUR prof cares about..." I recognize that professors have different ways of reaching students, but my rules have been working well for me for years. (and I'm guessing yours do for you)
And, yes, there are circumstances where adults are forced to be late, but not consistently. Thanks for your comment.....
No, it demonstrates the importance of giving sufficient facts in test questions, professor. (Unless one is expected to know what state Crazy Classroom is in....)
Answer: If it isn't EXPLICITLY stated, then the tudent may make any REASONABLE assumption. So "In most states...." they're right.
Sounds like grounds for an appeal.
If they're stupid enough to pay for tuition and then surf the internet in class, that is their problem. I was standing in front of two students at the campus Starbuck's and one of them said "I didn't follow half of the lecture today. That always happens when I'm on the computer. I'm always emailing and surfing and then I miss everything." I almost said "so, why are you still doing it?" But that's her choice.
I think it's reasonable to set out on the first day of class, "here are my policies, here is what I care about, here's what I don't care about, this will make me come down on you like a thousand bricks." Then stick to it.
Students have a way of finding new ways to push the line all the time. I had no idea, for example, that when I got tougher on my assignment policy ("no late papers, no, I'm not kidding") that some students would get desperate to turn in their papers and therefore would show up an hour late, wander in, stop right in from of the podium, and scan the classroom for an open seat. I had to create a new tardiness policy to cope with it ("no, if you're more than ten minutes late, don't bother entering the classroom. No, I'm not kidding.")
But if you have already told him that he has violated your classroom policies, and he openly is rude to you again, it's perfectly fair to ask him to leave. I'd try to pull him aside before or after class and state that if he does this one more time, you will ask him to leave. Or you could state to the entire class that anyone who does ___ will be asked to leave. Then when he blows it in front of the whole class, ask him to leave.
-Fellow member of the Me generation.
If you're finding alternative ways to entertain yourself in my class, then what am I here for?
-Fellow member of the Me generation who teaches