Penalizing Students
by P.D. Lesko
I DON’T MISS teaching until September rolls around, when, at the least in Michigan, the air turns crisp and the sugar maple leaves look almost aflame against the bright blue sky. On days like that, I remember walking across campus, briefcase in hand, toward some room filled with students eager to begin the Fall semester. I remember the smell of the air, the sound of my shoes on the pavement as I walked and the feel of a pile of syllabi under my arm.
I also remember my literature students’ murmurs as they flipped through a syllabus that called for them to read eight novels and perhaps a dozen short stories. Inevitably, someone would ask the question: Did I really expect them to write six papers, take regular quizzes and complete essay examinations?
Yes, I did.
In general, I would lose half a dozen students the first day, and end up with between 25 and 35 people in the course. These were the students who were hearty, and up for the challenge of weekly reading and critical discussions. Make no mistake, every semester one or two more students would find the pace of the course too challenging and I’d lose them. It was never my intention to drive students away, but rather to be clear in my expectations of what the course entailed. I routinely allowed extra students in, and always allowed students who dropped by the deadline to do so regardless of the reason for their departure. It was never my goal to penalize them.
I am currently subscribed to several e-mail listservs (as are many of you, I would imagine), and not too long ago a part-time faculty member posted to one of those listservs the following problem. He taught a 7:30 a.m. class, and was frustrated with students coming late. In order to solve the problem, he had decided to give a quiz at the beginning of each class. Students who arrived late, he said, could not take the quiz.
To my surprise, several other part-time faculty members admitted to using the same strategy. Some gave quizzes and would not allow latecomers to take them; others allowed latecomers to take a quiz, but composed a make up quiz which was much more difficult. All in all, the strategy of penalizing students–the entire class really–because of one or two latecomers turned out to be widespread.
Don’t get me wrong. When I taught early morning or early evening classes, I closed the door when the hour started and opened it when the class ended. Latecomers would have to disturb the entire group in order to come in and take a seat. What I never did, though, was refuse entry to my students or use graded materials, like quizzes, to deal with irritating behaviors. I took attendance, and students who missed five classes without an excuse could be dropped from the class, according to the guidelines set forth in my course description. Whether they came or not was up to them, and I saw it as my obligation to make my courses as engaging as possible so that students didn’t want to miss classes or come late.
Naturally, I had students who attended sporadically, and one young man who came in 15 minutes late, three days a week, for an entire semester. It was irritating, but I didn’t see it as my role to punish him. He lived with the inconvenience of having to track down assignments and materials from classmates, and complete assignments in less time than his fellow students. Those inconveniences, I reasoned, were punishment enough.
While reading those e-mail messages from the part-time faculty quiz givers, I had the distinct impression that the rationale behind the quizzes was the result of an irrational kind of logic. If I have to teach at this ungodly hour, the logic seemed to go, the students had better well be on time, or suffer the consequences. Adjuncts teach what they’re offered, and often those are the courses and course times no one else wants–the dregs of the department’s list of offerings. These faculty, summarily inconvenienced by not being able to choose their teaching times, see nothing wrong with summarily inconveniencing an entire class full of students by administering a quiz in order to punish one or two students.
As it is, grades and tests produce tremendous anxiety and can lead to bitter conflict between faculty and students. Students want to know what they can do to get high marks, rather than nuture their intellectual curiosity. Part-time faculty who grade honestly may find themselves unemployed.
However, it’s important that part-time faculty draw a clear distinction between teaching course materials and manners. There is no reason to let a student be disrespectful, of course, but respect is a two-way street.
