LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Are students learning or texting

Written by Peter Kraemer Friday, 20 November 2009 08:00

I transferred to NDSU from a technical college where my average class size was probably about 10 or 15 students. Even then I noticed that classroom respect was kind of an issue.

But now at NDSU, some of the things that I’m seeing just blow my mind. Stop to think about it for a moment – put yourself in your professor’s shoes.

What would you think if someone sat in the front row of Stevens Auditorium, put his/her feet up on the rail (just a short distance from your face), plugged in the ear buds, fired up the laptop and proceeded to play computer games the entire time and take notes when they happen to look up.

I think that if I were the professor, this would hurt my feelings. Just a little bit. In fact, I would probably make my assignments extra hard just to force my students to pay attention.

That’s a true story by the way. Maybe it’s not that bad in every class, but I see things that just don’t seem respectful every class. What ever happened to removing your hat as a sign of respect during class?

Some professors have a hard time getting students to remove their hats even for a test. How about having conversations in class? I remember “back in the day” if you spoke out of turn you’d actually get punished.

Now, all the professor can do is speak louder. Ever wonder why Denley Jacobson (chemistry professor) has his microphone turned up so loud and talks non-stop? It helps to cover the student conversations rumbling non-stop during class.

The whole respect for the professor thing could even help you to get what you are paying for in your education. Hey, I know there are a lot of you out there that are really good at multi-tasking, but if you put away the cell phone and abstained from texting for an hour (or at least start to break yourself of the addiction), you might get more out of class.

People used to kind of be sneaky about texting in class, but now, well … who cares what professor thinks? What’s he going to do about it anyway?

What happened to simple respect? I hope that I’ll never have to teach a class of college students.

Students’ body language and attentiveness tells me that after attending college myself for eight years, I’m not really anybody worthy to teaching or worthy of respect.

Sure, I understand that some classes are just a “get and A and get it out of the way” type deal. Chemistry, English, speech, etc. – I don’t like these classes either.  But how hard is it to show just a little respect?

Peter Kraemer is a junior studying construction management.