Because your enrollment in a class is not without consequence. If you are doing poorly due to being distracted by your phone, you are creating harm for other students and the lecturer/professor. Thinking that you are free to behave however you wish just because you are the customer is an extremely consumer-minded Karen-esque mindset.
How are you harming the other people in the class? I’m assuming here that you’re being reasonably discrete, have the volume off (or have ear buds in), etc. You not paying attention doesn’t really harm anyone else.
Think of it this way … if you sign up at a karate dojo, there are a ton of rules and norms you’ll need to follow. And those rules and norms will be very different dojo to dojo. That’s an understood expectation. It’s similar to college. The professor is empowered to dictate the structure and norms of their course.
And sure… The professor will dictate their expectations on day 1. If you don’t like the structure, you have 2 weeks to change the course with no penalty.
At a university, there are only so many options to meet some requirement for your program, often just one or two teachers for a given class, and at least at my school, they didn’t provide the syllabus until the start of classes. So if you disagree with the rules of the class, you may just be screwed.
Class policies shouldn’t stray too far from institution policies, and a syllabus should largely stick to defining coursework expectations, like when projects and coursework are due. I’m also of the opinion that attendance shouldn’t be part of the grade unless it’s a hands on class or something (i.e. all material for tests and homework is in the textbooks).
If your behavior causes issues in the class, you should be removed. But if your behavior merely distracts you, that should be your business. Higher level education shouldn’t hold your hand, you should succeed or fail on your own merits. A huge part of the expected outcomes should be developed self-discipline, because the whole point should be to cultivate self-motivated people who can learn and improve on their own.
No, I don’t think being assessed relative to subpar students is a benefit. You’d get a better letter grade, sure. But likely a worse education due to “lowering the bar”, which is what you paid for. Educators often can’t grade on absolute scales because the pass/fail ratio of the students factors into their own performance assessment.
Grades don’t indicate the quality of your education anyway, they indicate your performance in a class. If someone else does poorly and that benefits your grade, the quality of your education hasn’t changed, only your grade.
Taking a seat in a full class to fuck around on your phone could fit that bill. Someone else might have wanted to be in your seat. In this scenario, your actions in that class could have repercussions beyond just the classroom.
Sure, someone else certainly does want that seat, provided your school doesn’t suck so much that there’s empty seats, but that doesn’t mean they deserve that seat. Presumably entry to college is awarded based on merit, and success or failure in college should also be based on merit. If I choose to screw up that chance, then that’s on me, and it’s probably better that I learn that lesson early in life (i.e. in college) instead of teachers enforcing rigid structure to increase graduation rates.
Because your enrollment in a class is not without consequence. If you are doing poorly due to being distracted by your phone, you are creating harm for other students and the lecturer/professor. Thinking that you are free to behave however you wish just because you are the customer is an extremely consumer-minded Karen-esque mindset.
How are you harming the other people in the class? I’m assuming here that you’re being reasonably discrete, have the volume off (or have ear buds in), etc. You not paying attention doesn’t really harm anyone else.
Think of it this way … if you sign up at a karate dojo, there are a ton of rules and norms you’ll need to follow. And those rules and norms will be very different dojo to dojo. That’s an understood expectation. It’s similar to college. The professor is empowered to dictate the structure and norms of their course.
And sure… The professor will dictate their expectations on day 1. If you don’t like the structure, you have 2 weeks to change the course with no penalty.
I think that’s a bit different.
At a university, there are only so many options to meet some requirement for your program, often just one or two teachers for a given class, and at least at my school, they didn’t provide the syllabus until the start of classes. So if you disagree with the rules of the class, you may just be screwed.
Class policies shouldn’t stray too far from institution policies, and a syllabus should largely stick to defining coursework expectations, like when projects and coursework are due. I’m also of the opinion that attendance shouldn’t be part of the grade unless it’s a hands on class or something (i.e. all material for tests and homework is in the textbooks).
If your behavior causes issues in the class, you should be removed. But if your behavior merely distracts you, that should be your business. Higher level education shouldn’t hold your hand, you should succeed or fail on your own merits. A huge part of the expected outcomes should be developed self-discipline, because the whole point should be to cultivate self-motivated people who can learn and improve on their own.
Lower class participation, impact on grading curves, and distracting behavior all have an effect on others.
The second would be a net benefit on the rest of the class, no?
No, I don’t think being assessed relative to subpar students is a benefit. You’d get a better letter grade, sure. But likely a worse education due to “lowering the bar”, which is what you paid for. Educators often can’t grade on absolute scales because the pass/fail ratio of the students factors into their own performance assessment.
Grades don’t indicate the quality of your education anyway, they indicate your performance in a class. If someone else does poorly and that benefits your grade, the quality of your education hasn’t changed, only your grade.
Taking a seat in a full class to fuck around on your phone could fit that bill. Someone else might have wanted to be in your seat. In this scenario, your actions in that class could have repercussions beyond just the classroom.
Sure, someone else certainly does want that seat, provided your school doesn’t suck so much that there’s empty seats, but that doesn’t mean they deserve that seat. Presumably entry to college is awarded based on merit, and success or failure in college should also be based on merit. If I choose to screw up that chance, then that’s on me, and it’s probably better that I learn that lesson early in life (i.e. in college) instead of teachers enforcing rigid structure to increase graduation rates.