Question of the Day

[onefixedstar]

Why do students bother coming to class if they aren't going to listen?

It's not as if we're taking attendance. This class has over 1500 students in it--we don't notice if someone's not there. More importantly, we don't particularly care if someone's not there (at least until they start asking us questions during office hours that they would know the answers to if they'd bothered to show up to class). If you're not going to listen, don't come. And if you do come and a TA tells you to keep the noise down, then keep the noise down. Do not come back with a smartass comment about how you pay tuition and that entitles you to do whatever you want. Newsflash: everyone around you also paid tuition, including the people who asked you several times to shut up because they actually wanted to hear the lecture they paid for. Be considerate. Shut up or get out.

Comments

[semiotic-trader.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Somehow, that sounds like a very U of T thing to say: "I paid to be here, so I can do whatever I want." This is the downside of the client mentality imposed by the outgoing Tory government: we all know that the customer is always right. It's the same logic that says, "I paid for this, so you can't fail me and you can't refuse to give me my degree." And I hate students who have that particular sense of entitlement. It devalues degrees. But then, I always was an elitist.

And, of course, your logic is impeccable: the others around there also paid tuition to be there, and if they want to listen, then they should be able to. If I were the prof, I would simply stop the lecture and refuse to go on until the student left. Let peer pressure take care of the rest.

[villagechick.livejournal.com]

over 1500 students
The mind boggles and then reels. But then I went to a college, not a university. I think our largest class was 200 students.

[semiotic-trader.livejournal.com]

Heh. The largest class I ever was a member of was probably less than 150 students, and even then it was a manadatory course ... for all Arts faculty students. And that's at a university. With 25,000 students total.

[onefixedstar.livejournal.com]

It's a change for me too. At the school where I did my BA and MA, we had five or six sections of Soc 101, each with about 120 students and one TA. My largest class had about 400 students, and I only had one or two like that the whole time I was there. I don't think we could have done 1500 students--there was no room on campus big enough to hold that many students.

[onefixedstar.livejournal.com]

This is the downside of the client mentality imposed by the outgoing Tory government: we all know that the customer is always right.

I hadn't thought of that, but you're probably right. It fits in with the general devaluing of intellectual development that doesn't lead immediately to a high paying job.

[a-just-society.livejournal.com]

Ah... class in Convocation Hall. I remember it well - although for me it was Psych 100. Nothing like a lecture in a ginormous amphitheatre. I didn't have anything else that was as big in my days there, although a couple of my other first- and second-year courses were in the 200-300 range.

[semiotic-trader.livejournal.com]

Absolutely right. It turns degrees from an accomplishment into a commodity.

[steninja.livejournal.com]

Mine was in the theatre, psych 101 with 500-600 (depending on who woke up in time to go).

We have no convocation hall. We just use the gym. :(