Classroom Etiquette
During class last Tuesday night the professor concluded the lecture with five minutes to go. She asked if anyone had any questions, and if not, said that we would be adjourned. From next to me my friend asked Dr. Y a question, which she began to answer when one of our classmates got up, put on his backpack and started for the door. The prof had to instruct him that class was not yet over, which stopped him in his tracks, but rather than taking his seat, he just stood there and looked annoyed. While my friend and Dr. Y discussed her question, another of our classmates began stuffing her notebook and pens into her backpack, making quite a bit of racket, which we all ignored.
Now I realize it was nearly 9:00 p.m. and everyone was probably tired, but where is the respect for the class and the professor? When I was an undergraduate, a professor once gave one of my classes a lecture about putting their things up before class was out. He said that it’s disruptive and disrespectful, that we had plenty of time to put our things away after the lecture. He was right and since then it’s something that has always stuck with me because it happens too often and is too difficult to ignore. When five minutes to the end of class comes everyone starts getting restless, fidgeting, and packing up when the class is still in session. Okay, undergrads shouldn’t do it (even though they always do), but grad students should absolutely never do this! By the time you’re a graduate student you’re supposed to know that it’s disrespectful. Apparently, my classmates haven’t been informed that graduate students should be held to a higher standard.
The thing is, they’re both very non-traditional students. I like being a graduate student more than I did an undergrad because now, unlike then, I’m surrounded with people more my age. Yes, there are students in the program who’re early twenties, but most of my cohorts are my age or older. It’s encouraging to be engaged in academic discourse with people who’re not 10+ years my junior. That said, the man who got up and tried to leave class is well beyond me in years. He’s at least mid-50′s and is so incredibly rude, something I could overlook if he weren’t so, well, aggravating. I like to think that I’m someone who takes the thoughts and opinions of others into account, that I think about what they’re saying and give them a reasonable amount of due. Where this guy is concerned, it’s impossible to do the same because he’s so far off topic all the time. Every time he opens his mouth, I die a little inside. I hate to admit it, but it’s true. The other person, the one who was packing up and making a lot of noise, she’s more my age but isn’t very friendly either. Rather, she does things to try to manipulate her way though the system. It’s bad enough they’re disruptive and unproductive during class time, why do they need to be rude and petty, too? It boggles the mind.
I think, perhaps, I’m noticing it more now than ever before because of my job. Working with undergraduate writers, particularly those in the remedial writing system, is eye-opening. Most of them are either fresh out of high school, where they slipped through the system thanks to ‘No Child Left Behind,’ or they’re non-trads with a chip on their shoulder because they think they’re too good to be in remedial writing. In these mindsets, where they’re babied or too-grown-up, they completely lack an understanding of decorum. They don’t seem to understand that in the classroom, there are expectations and boundaries. That some behaviors are appropriate, while others are certainly not. They sit and look at Facebook or text their friends during class. They talk when the instructor’s are talking, they try to skip labs because they’ve got it in their heads that they don’t need it, that it’s pointless hoop-jumping meant to make their lives difficult. Rather, this is college and in college we exercise a modicum of professional etiquette.
Yet, I wonder, how can we expect undergrads to behave themselves when grad students wont? Graduate students are held to a higher standard, but when they don’t adhere to those standards, expecting better from 18 year old’s seems unfair. Ultimately, I feel like those who cannot behave shouldn’t be welcomed in the classroom, at any level, but especially at the graduate level. If they don’t want to be there, they should stay home. It takes less than two minutes to put your things in your bag and fish out your keys, so why not wait until class is over. Why does it matter if you get out at 9:00 or 9:02? It doesn’t, that’s clearly the answer. It’s just so sad when those at the graduate level can’t show a drop of respect for their classmates and the Ph.D teaching the course. We owe them (one another and ourselves) respect, I just wish that those around me could see that, too.
