Professors should let go

Believe it or not, we’ve already graduated from high school

JENELLE PETRINCHUK STAFF

“If you don’t want to do your homework or go to class, no one is going to stop you. If you don’t try, the only person you’ll be hurting is yourself.” Harsh warnings from high-school teachers trying to prepare their students for university.

I really do wish high-school teachers would consult with professors before they start speeches on the freedom and independence students have in university, because although students do eventually grow into adults, their privilege to be treated and make choices like one is hindered by some professors’ policies.

I’m talking about the ultimate leash that is kept on students — taking attendance in university classrooms. It really doesn’t make sense to me that profs feel the need to keep track of students who have already made a choice to attend university in the first place. Students have decided to spend large sums of their money on an education and we, as students, have chosen to dedicate a large portion of our early adulthood to bettering ourselves as scholars and as citizens.

But for some reason, some profs still feel they have to force students to attend class, by punishing them if they don’t. Isn’t learning the material and passing the exams the most important part of an education? I know in many cases passing is impossible without attending class, but it should still be the student’s choice to make, not the professor’s.

We get sick, we have jobs, we get tired and we get overworked. Aside from being lazy, there are so many reasons why a student might not make it to class on a certain day, and in addition to attendance-taking some profs insist on deducting marks from absent students.

Profs say it’s all about the participation and they use “participation marks,” sometimes worth 15 per cent or more of a student’s final grade. To add to that, most profs will tell you showing up for class is simply not enough to grab the whole 15 per cent. You have to engage in conversation, answer and ask questions and continuously offer your opinion. So what’s the point of taking attendance then? Won’t a prof notice if someone is there, speaking and obviously doing their homework?

But only those who “suffer” the advantage of small, intimate class sizes are affected by this. Ask any science student if they’ve ever had to sign in for a biology lecture or had roll-call in intro to psychology. In a class of 300 students, no prof is going to go through the trouble of checking to see who doesn’t show up. How is it fair that English students have an extra penalty for missing class, when class discussion should be just as important for science students?

Very special cases will excuse you from class, the most common being a simple doctor’s note. All a student has to do is get out of bed (which is evidently what they were avoiding in the first place), trek through freezing-cold Manitoba weather and wait in a stuffy, crowded and noisy doctor’s office for three hours, just to be called in and give the doctor your own diagnosis of an obvious head cold. After prescribing yourself some much-needed rest you can leave with a note, to be handed in to your prof next class. Simple proof, right?

Of course you can also be excused from class if you show up with a death certificate proving someone in your immediate family died. Morbid, I know. I say, if someone wants to lie about their grandma dying for the fifth time this year, let them. Have sympathy for them. Obviously, they either really needed to get out of class or are suffering from severe moral problems.

I don’t think professors who take attendance are on some crazy power trip. Professors want their students to show up for class and show some interest in the course, a reasonable desire. But if a prof is an engaging and challenging lecturer, students will show up no matter what. By docking marks, students are being punished even if they have an honest excuse for not being there.

This problem could be solved if professors just put a little faith and trust in their students. We are not in grade school. We’re adults, living on our own and making our own choices. If students are making the wrong choices, low exam and essay grades will reflect this. But don’t punish those who are really trying, and may just have more to deal with than classes. It really does happen.