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("It's a Lack of Respect", She Replied. -- continued)
What happens when students do not follow such rules? Students converse with each other, sometimes loudly enough to interrupt the discussion and distract everyone else in the room. They chat or comment to each other, text, monitor cellphone calls, go to the bathroom when they feel the effect of the 12 oz drink they have just finished, get up and cross the room to put something in the trash (even walking in front of a movie screen), laugh or tell jokes, and make comments out of turn (e.g. during a novel-based movie, “Oh! He looks just like my last boyfriend!”). There is a social dimension that is out of place.
When students get graded papers back they compare grades instead of checking to see what they got wrong. The teacher’s handing out materials is taken as permission to talk freely, so the teacher has to restore order before continuing. Sometimes, if the teacher does not maintain control, a classroom can look like a 9th grade homeroom---before the bell rings. Maintaining control is essential, because a class can go out of control very quickly or over time. Once it is gone, it is hard to pull back.
Specific Examples
For example, in two of my daytime sections this past spring, 40% to 50% of students believed that they had the right to talk to classmates during class. They made comments to other students. They commented to each other on something I said. They held little discussions about points that had been made or their own personal experiences. One otherwise earnest student in the front row got up to put a soda cup in the trash and then left for the bathroom. Another went to the bathroom because “I have to pee!” A couple went outside to take cellphone calls.
Three students sitting in a row routinely made comments to each other. One was diabetic, one had ADD, and one did not tell me till too late that he simply could not write an essay and then took the resulting F despite my best efforts. He felt free to talk. Two were boyfriend-girlfriend and passed notes. They were all very nice, I liked them all, and they did not ask for their personal burdens, but they did not respect the rights of others in the classroom to an uninterrupted discussion.
In another class sometimes six or seven all commented to each other. One student texted his baby-sitter. Several made jokes with each other. Another student spoke out whenever she had a comment. Others passed notes and waited for a response. Sometimes students looked at the instructor while talking to a neighbor, as if to say, “Can I get away with this or will you call me on it?”

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All these students were oblivious to the effects of their behaviors on other students and, I think, really did not care. There was a narcissistic quality to their behavior. I thought, “How often should the instructor have to interrupt instruction to treat college students as if they were children?”
If I insisted that the rules be followed and made an issue over an infraction, I was considered too demanding. They would have complained about me in due time. “You don’t relate to us” when you expect us to be quiet during class. (Another teacher was the subject of “a note to the chair” that she was too demanding when she expected the rules to be followed!).
Always, underlying all this, was the issue of whether I would be supported by the “administration” if I held firm on classroom behavior policies. Students were well aware of this uncertainty, because they were not always called on it at other times or in other classes. (See below.) Always, underlying this, was the need to focus on teaching and strike a balance between what needs to be accomplished and how many distractions can be tolerated in doing so. Striking that balance is an art as well as a skill. The point, of course, is that once the rules were laid down and I made clear that I expected them to be followed, students should have followed them. In years past, they did.
When at the last class I finally pointed out to both sections, very clearly, the destructive effects of their behaviors, they were chagrinned, ashamed, and acknowledged that they had done wrong. I’d been giving the same message all along, from the first explanation of the syllabus. They had simply chosen to ignore it---until the end. And their grades were indeed lower. It has not always been this way. It is not as if I do not know how to manage a class after 15 years.
Entitlement
Everyone of these students had acknowledged the rules. They accepted the rules as reasonable, so long as they could go to the bathroom if they really needed to, which was fine. Every one of these students repeatedly had been told that such behaviors were not appropriate and would cause them to receive a lower grade. They simply felt that they were entitled to do as they pleased.
CONTINUE