Actually, it is our job to teach the students manners, because we are teaching them professionalism. Work-place manners. Learning to be a professional, a grown-up, is as much a part of the goal of college as the specific information and skills that we are teaching.

I had a student at a previous institution where I worked ask me, in class, what my salary was. She proceeded to send me several page long hateful messages throughout the remainder of the semester, including saying that I obviously resented her because she made more than I did (note that I did not tell her my salary nor did I have a clue what she made nor what her full time job was).

I had two students who consistently left about five minutes before the class was over. I fixed that by giving a short quiz every day during the last five minutes. Then there were those who regularly came in late. The solution – another quiz at the beginning of class. And, of course, there was the occasional student who would answer his/her phone in class. I found that an effective way to deal with that was to simply stop any lecture or discussion, walk up next to the student, and listen attentively to their phone conversation. I never did find a satisfactory solution for the “sleepers,” though. Once, when one of the students fell asleep in class, we all quietly left and adjourned to an adjacent classroom. He was still asleep when the custodian came in late that afternoon to mop the floor….

She was rude in any case–much better never to have come to class at all–but I’ll grant you that she may or may not have needed the MLA refresher. Some students don’t. This class hasn’t turned in that essay yet–this was just last week–so I don’t know for certain, but I’m betting this particular young woman won’t be one of those who already knew all she needed to know about citing sources–or anything else related to college writing.

I hear you, mhenson10. I just made a conscious decision long ago not to engage in those sorts of interventions. She wasn’t really disruptive, in any case. Just rude.

“I blame the adults in their lives up to this point, in particular their parents, who obviously failed to teach them better.”

As a parent of a college student and a teacher, I would go a little softer on the parents! Once out of school, sometimes students want to really flex that new-found freedom. It doesn’t matter what their parents tried to teach them, they are going to do what they want and have to flop a few times to learn the necessary lessons. My son ‘fessed up to a few things learned in college that simply hadn’t sunk in until then. So maybe it would be helpful to them if you, well, just reinforced that learning a bit. YOU are the authority figure, like the boss they will later have, and maybe it will make a big difference if they are reminded of what they have already learned.

We recently had an alumnus speak to a class about his career with a major airline. A former athlete, he was a great example of a successful graduate. A student slipped into class, at least 15 minutes late. As he ended his comments, she raised her hand to ask a question. His response: “Well, I covered that at the beginning of my talk, but you missed it because you were late for class. In my business, if you’re late, the plane takes off without you.” It made an impression.

I teach mostly Latino students. Their culture teaches them to be polite to elders, especially women. I once taught classes with all races and ethnicities. What a difference!

I appreciate it, mhenson10. But I haven’t lost control of a classroom in 26 years, and I don’t expect I’ll start now. The way the other students were looking at this young woman when she came back will probably accomplish more than anything I could do or say. You could see on their faces that they knew exactly how rude she was being and felt embarrassed for her.

Hmmm – the question here is not whether the student was rude – that part is obvious. The question is ‘what is my job as a teacher?’ Are you on an assembly line, bolting a widget to a frame? In which case, if a piece drifts past your station that is aligned wrong or defective, is your job to let it go, or to pull it off the line and send it back? Or are you a teacher, with a specific topic to cover, but by tradition with some additional personal authority and responsibility? Do you have the right/obligation to set some positive standards/expectations (and having done that, to live by them), to require that the flow of information and respect be bidirectional, or are you just a speaking tool, an animatron? If the latter, how’s that working out for you? Is the standard of not having any standards giving you the vigor to get up every day and do it again, with feeling, or is it undermining your self respect and ambition? Is this one aspect of why we are so wrought up about the educational experience today?

I don’t suppose anyone is willing to give the young lady the benefit of the doubt? Maybe she did indeed have the sort of “personal emergency” the author originally assumed, but then since she was already out of the room, decided to pick up a snack before coming back in? Although I do think that “chips” are probably not a good choice to bring back to the classroom – sounds noisy to eat. Even if she was “just hungry”, maybe there’s a good reason for that too; maybe her home/work/school schedule is so tight that she just didn’t have time to eat earlier. Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – learning MLA definitely falls after, not before, basic hunger. So she actually did make a logical choice for a human – grab a quick bite so that she’d be in a good mental position to benefit from the rest of the session, rather than sit there unable to learn, distracted by hunger.

My first semester ever teaching–in a comp class, full of first semester freshmen–I had a student call me fat. That was so far afield that all the other students were shocked and kind of walled her off in, perhaps, an effort to shame her. I rolled with it–tried to play it off with some kind of self-deprecating humor the best I could. (She wound up plagiarizing badly on the final…) Had another student in a different course leave half an hour early from a one-night a week class the first two days of the semester entirely without reason, and while she was in class all she did was text or sleep. Found out she was a redshirt senior student-athlete, called her academic advisor, and tried to work things out. They didn’t, she wound up dropping the class mid-semester, and I found out later that she was dismissed from the team for unspecified violation of team rules.

I think introductory comp classes–English 101 and the like–are often viewed by the university as the gateway to the university, hence they are required in nearly every college and university in the country, and comp instructors tend to run into this kind of behavior quite often. To generalize completely, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between high school seniors and first year college students (more freedoms and less inhibitions perhaps), and comp instructors wind up doing a lot of the “other” behavioral work necessary to mold young people into somewhat functioning college students. I wish this wasn’t the case, because I hate having the regular “Come to Jesus” talks with students about turning things on time, appropriate behavior in class discussions, appropriate decorum in written discourse and the like, but I think it is structured into the university system in such a way as to make it an inevitable part of composition in particular.

You know, I think in part it is that time of the semester where whatever behaviors have been under the surface just bubble over. Although I have (and enforce) strict rules against cell phone use in class, one student this week answered and started talking on her phone as she was walking out of class to take the call.

In my counseling role on campus, I am getting tons of referrals from faculty right now, about troubling and/or rude student behaviors. I’ve had more referrals in the last week and a half than all semester.

Partly it’s due to stress. Students and faculty alike are desperate for spring break (next week). It’s getting to be that time where those students who have not performed well thus far are beginning to realize that they really may not pass the class. And for faculty who may have been somewhat loose on enforcing rules, students may really be taking advantage of that looseness about now.

Good question: is it our job to teach students manners? Well, I do think it’s our job to expect standards of behavior that are likely to be expected in most workplaces/four-year colleges. The question is: how much effort do we put into that? What do we do when they don’t rise to those expectations?

That being said, my experience is that the vast majority DO rise to whatever we expect of them, which is reason enough for having high academic and behavioral standards.

I’m glad you didn’t make a scathing remark as it would have been based on assumption-making on your part. And I agree with staylor, it is our job to model, and to insist on, good manners. This does not require disruption on a teacher’s part. I have quickly and smoothly advised students who are texting or engaging in sidebar conversations to stop or leave the class. I haven’t lost a student yet, and other students have thanked me for addressing disruptive behaviors.

I agree with staylor77 wholeheartedly. We can’t control what happen in students’ private life but as a teacher, I think I can work on the other half of the equation. Let’s take this task to heart. I had a student exhibited rude behavior in class (not paying attention and exhibiting indifference and couldn’t care less behavior…granted he is a minor in business, not a major) last Tuesday. I requested to meet with him and he wrote an email said that he did not see the need of it. He went on accusing me of “picking on” him in class and embarrassing him in front of others. I, however, believe that as a teacher I have a right to select a student to answer question. What is so wrong of paying attention to your students’ progress in class? He obviously did not see my point when I am sincerely care of his learning progress. What am I going to do next? If he declines to meet with me again, I will send him to the dean. We must stop rude behavior in the classroom. Teaching them professionalism is to show them how to respond professionally.

The instructor must make the house rules clear. You said they could leave if necessary, but you didn’t say come and go and have lunch as you please. It is incorrect to assume that everyone has the same idea of manners, especially since I know many teachers who allow food (even entire meals) in their class, other that don’t. If you demand manners then you must make your expectations clear, and make rulings on those that aren’t. Most students will follow rules, but the parameters vary continually from class to class. Each instructor must make their parameters (yes even defining manners) clear, otherwise one is doomed to be insulted by student’s perception of acceptable behavior. They don’t have to like the rules, and sometimes the rules may even seem to them to be unfair, but students don’t get to make that decision, the instructor does. If they don’t follow the rules, then say please leave. Don’t argue, don’t engage in debate, they simply must leave. If they refuse to leave, (and this has never happened to me) then call security. The classroom is not the place to engage in debating definitions of rules or disruptive behavior. You are the judge in your class room, and are also in charge of enforcing those rules. Period. It is kind of like… the real world.

american students hardly show much respect for their professors

I’d agree with you if I didn’t see an example of bad students damaging a brand. I worked for a for-profit career school which prided itself on high placement. During my time at the school, we watched our 87 percent placement drop below 50 percent. Companies would hire our students or allow them to have internships but discover major problems with the graduates/interns. Most of them had the basic technical skills for their jobs but lacked professionalism (showing up on-time, problem solving, good manners, etc.). The poorly behaved students hit a critical mass in the job market and we had a difficult time placing new students in internships. This problem was because the school had created an irresponsible student culture backed by administration who only removed students for violent behavior. While we can’t teach manners broadly, career training programs MUST teach professionalism.

Point taken, but any human resources department will also tell you that communicating clear expectations is essential in any supervisory job. It doesn’t matter what the expectations are, it is that they are clearly communicated and consistently enforced. Otherwise you are risking a lawsuit, for good reason. People come from various backgrounds, and they have varying standards of what is “acceptable” behavior, and it is up to the employer to clearly and consistently communicate those standards. And that’s the “real” world.

When I have a “sleeper,” (fortunately, a rare occasion) I walk up to them, wake them up if need be, and say, “You can either stay awake, or you can leave class. Your choice.” That generally works.

As intplibrarian noted, you have no idea whether she was being rude. And apparently don’t want to find out.

As an undergrad I was also the (newly single) parent of 6 children, the eldest was 14 years old, the youngest was 14 months old and had autism. I had (have) a serious spinal disorder that causes neuropathic pain for which I take heavy pain meds. I sometimes struggled to stay awake in class. I was also a dedicated full time student, graduated summa cum laude with a 3.958 GPA. During the same years I nursed my dad through his last years to his death at home from mesathelioma- a brutal illness. So between rearing 6 kids alone, caring for a dying parent- and burying him, dealing with unremitting pain and the awful drowsiness the meds produce, bring my youngest to myriad therapies for autism and then reproducing those therapies at home, (not to mention dealing with his diagnosis, autistic behaviors, and all the issues that the other kids presented due to abandonment by their dad), all the normal demands of a large family- scouts, baseball, first jobs, teaching kids to drive, helping with homework, etc, and being a full time “A” student myself– I was exhausted. I never ever asked for an extension or a single break. I was glad to have teachers who encouraged me and engaged me with their subject matter– and never complained if I exhibited exhaustion. Outside of my own dept, no one knew anything about my personal life. Even within my dept, their knowledge was quite limited. I do not present as rude and they had the common sense to know that if I was struggling to stay awake, it was something other than rudeness. They encouraged me with their belief in me. I now teach at the same university where I earned my first credits towards my undergraduate degree many years ago. Thank God no one ever told me to stay awake or leave.

My institution has a rule that prohibits food in the classroom so this particular problem does not arise. However, my standard list of classroom rules, part of the syllabus, states that a student is free to leave the classroom at any time but cannot return. If the student really needs to leave, s/he is free to, but no one is free to disrupt the class by returning.

The rudest thing I have witnessed in my class? A student getting out of his seat while pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and exiting the room.

There’s a lot of understandable irritation, worry, and even anger here. But we really don’t know for sure why students act in certain ways–in fact, they may not know, either. Though it’s a difficult exercise, I recommend not worrying about motivations or beliefs, which in a sense is what Rob manages by trying to ignore the behavior. I just don’t agree that the behavior should be ignored, just that we should set aside the students’ intentions.

Lay out how everyone should act, including you. Teach students a strong method for healing the effects of disruptions (I teach formal apologies, but you could use something else). Focus on the behavior, not on possible motives or intentions that will just make you burn and burn.

Use the many examples of students who are acting well every class. When something happens, turn to one of them–have that student explain or model how to act.

Don’t confront the student in front of other students. Instead, point, either literally or metaphorically, to your list of behavioral rules. Repeat as necessary. And repeat. Do not explain.

Be willing to wait quietly. I have waited until a student apologized or at least acknowledged a problem. I’m the teacher–I should be strong enough to outwait anyone in my class, albeit calmly.

But some students just are recalcitrant. Keep thinking about all of your students who really are glad to be learning something.

Best,

Jeff

“I’m betting this particular young woman won’t be one of those who already knew all she needed to know about citing sources–or anything else related to college writing.”

Rob, you are skating very close to libel on this one: risking yourself, your college, and possibly even Chronicle. The student is clearly identifiable from your comments–happened last week, other students noticed, only student to get chips and soda and candy. Casting doubts about her academic ability, based on what? If she’s diabetic, you’re also in trouble on ADA.

I’ve enjoyed many of your other postings, but you crossed the line here.

The rudest behavior I saw in a classroom was a student who answered her cell phone during her own presentation. Since she was at the front of the class, we could all hear her half of the conversation and it didn’t seem to be an emergency.

Libel, in the legal system with which I’m familiar, requires a loss that can be calculated: for example, if you charged the author of a published work with plagiarism and it turned out that you were wrong, you could be held accountable for the author’s lost profits. Here if the author were wrong in “Casting doubts about her academic ability,” he might be seen as guilty of … underestimating her?

There is a growing body of research on classroom incivilities engaged in by students and teachers (unfortunately rudeness isn’t the sole province of students). The advice given by many of the commenters here reflects the general findings: 1) Establish the rules (I actually ask my students to come up with the class rules themselves–you will find that they are, in majority, more demanding than you might be) 2) reiterate the rules regularly, for they have other classes, other lives, other thoughts, and if you’re dealing with traditional students, they are still under construction as it were 3) if a student does something uncivil, be kind and supportive and do not single them out in class 4) meet all students one-on-one in the first few weeks of class to establish an individual relationship with each 5) mix the standard chalk and talk/discussion style with collaborative work: students will socialize other students more efficiently than you will ever be able to do.

Disruptive behavior can be generated by instructors who are authoritarian, contradictory, disorganized, chronically late, give impromptu exams or assignments, are arbitrary in grading or policies, are rude or contemptuous, or who are intolerant of viewpoints that do not match their own. That’s not to blame the instructor for a student who whips out a cell phone, but rather to say that instructors sometimes need to review their own behavior, particularly in situations where students are being openly disruptive (groaning, laughing, talking back, arguing aggressively).

That said, there are students who have psychological issues and none of these things will much matter. It’s good, however, to generally follow the advice given in Young Frankenstein: “Do not humiliate him, I beg you!” — don’t rile up students or embarrass them in front of their peers. If the student is unbalanced, you can put yourself and others in danger. If the student is dealing with some horrific situation, you will shame and embarrass yourself. In nearly all cases, you will exacerbate the behavior and move other students to sympathize with the disruptive student rather than with you.

By the way, I also didn’t “cast doubts” on anyone’s “academic ability.” I was very clearly talking about knowledge base, not intelligence or aptitude. In this case, I have no questions about the student’s ability. What she does or doesn’t know about my subject area is another matter. Clearly, it’s well within the professor’s purview to ask those sorts of questions. And for the record, I’ve never had any students who knew everything they needed to know about college writing, although I’ve had several who thought they did.

Is that what you’re going with? Really? What on earth did people do before cell phones?

This discussion brings to mind a great quote from “12 Angry Men”.
Juror 11: “I beg pardon…”
Juror 10: “I beg pardon? What are so polite about?”
Juror 11: “For the same reason you are not – it’s they way I was brought up.”

Rob – I don’t know, I think that expecting people to act like adults and structuring courses so that there are consequences to not doing so is indeed teaching them manners. Or professionalism, or whatever you want to call it. Parents teach their children manners like saying please and not chewing with your mouth open, but they can’t help much with young adults making the transition from how to act in high school to how to act in college/on the job. This student of yours had of course never heard anyone tell her that she shouldn’t get up and leave a class for anything short of an emergency, but unlike most students, she also couldn’t figure it out on her own, and could benefit from a friendly email telling her the opposite. You’re teaching writing, which is a valuable skill, but the entire experience of college is teaching them a host of non-academic socializing skills. In my experience, the students who fail do so not because they can’t handle the work: writing, midterms, presentations, etc., but because they can’t figure out the growing-up part: cultivating professors as mentors who can write letters for them, managing the fact that no one is forcing them to attend every class, dealing with the new freedom to drink & do drugs, etc. Re-frame what you are calling “manners” as “professionalism” or “growing up” and maybe you’ll feel better about it!

Scott

I had a student walk out during a class activity with no explanation or follow-up e-mail. Since I give points for such projects, the student will have 0 points for the activity until a substitute assignment is completed. If we in education are training people for the professional world, then I should hold my students accountable to the same standards I have as a professional. While I would appreciate manners being taught consistently at home, I also would appreciate more full-time faculty openings within 100 miles of my current home. Both are out of my control and I must do what I can to make up for the deficiency.

Very interesting. I entered academia in my early 50′s after being a partner in a law firm. If a new associate had gotten up and walked out of a meeting to stretch the legs I can absolutely assure you that he or she would soon be preparing a resume to submit to other, surely less distinguished and less renumerative law firms. My students are told very clearly that if they have an absolute emergency they can leave the room. But if it happens more than once or twice a semester I will expect a letter from their physician stating the medical reasons why they cannot stay in the room for the entire class. I do not play god and evaluate the reasons why a phone goes off or why a student goes to sleep. The student will surely have what he or she considers a good reason, but according to the course requiements, and the statement students sign at the beginning of the semester, there are penalties. College students are supposedly adults and we should not be their ‘enablers’ deciding between Joe’s good reason for disruptive behavior — yes, having a nap in class is disruptive, – and Tisha’s bad reason. Guess what, students like requirements that are applied equally and get very annoyed when they hear that Ms. So and So got an extension on her paper because of a family emergency. Why didn’t their business trip or vacation merit an extension? Because the instructor is god and can make divine judgments!

Insightful and measured article. I am also a British academic and have scanned the boards to get a notion of how people are responding to the riots. It has been eye-opening to see how many across the spectrum condemn the standards of public life in the UK. Putting aside the knee-jerk racism and anti-immigrant brigade, it is clear that many are upset with the crass commercialism and deficient social values of contemporary England. Professor Green’s emphasis on the extent to which young people are shortchanged by those in the upper echelons of public life hits the mark. The deaths of three young Asian Muslims attempting to protect their community are indeed a salutary riposte to the media’s habitual image of young Muslim males as potential terrorists. Who can reconnect England with its lost values – of family, individual self-respect, and commitment to community? Not the politicians and money markets I fear.    

I have no evidence for what follows, but it seems to me like a reasonable supposition: the Murdoch press has had extraordinary success in getting people to vote against their own best interests by raising ancillary (or totally phony) issues. Now it stands exposed as in principle an operation run by a bunch of crooks, some of whom will doubtless be adjudged to be legally criminals. In other words, a giant sham, perpetrated by all three major parties in conjunction with the Murdoch press, now, by a curious twist of events and perhaps also by logic that is less than straightforward, appears to all to be what insiders (and those who pay attention) have known for a long time. The game is up. It is hard to imagine how disillusioning this must be to a gullible public that thought it was being entertained, not gulled, by News of the World, etc. PS: If I were a Scot I would have voted SNP in the last election.

Green/Wilhelm astutely noted that there may have been much more influencing the riots than a mob out to loot and burn. For a proportion of those involved base motives were the impetus, but incidents like these do not occur without political and social resentments underlying and escalating tensions. The questionable shooting seems to have been the match here, but that related to a whole range of class tensions.
   And that’s abundently obvious as made evident from the British governments proposal to shut down social media in the event of a potential resurgance.
   Concerning the possible effects of the austerity measures, in both the US and UK we do need to remember that their are millions of people reliant on the programs which are going to be axed. And that one of the unstated purposes of these programs is to defuse social resentment. Removing these may lower deficits, or provide more tax cuts to elite corporations who do not pay their fair share-but the social cost may be too high. Whether or not an individual takes advantage of these programs in the proper manner is not the entire issue. The fact that these exist provides a conceptual belief within the lower orders that the government has some interest in their well being, and is not entirely the servant of the elite.  And that perception is incredibly important because both the US and UK’s systems breed pervasive mass media ads which imply the good life can be obtained but possess economies which have a rigidified underclass. One which the middle class will be joining in increasing numbers.
   And under these conditions cutting educational support is a profoundly short sighted and very stupid thing to do….we in academe may not like to admit it but one of the functions of public higher ed is to provide a belief for those in the working classes that the can join the middle class and to porvide those in the middle class to believe they can maintain that status. Increasingly this may be a veneer but it is a essential one….

Considering these influences the simplistic Horatio Algerism, and Ayn Rand nonsense which seems to be being used by some to justify these austerities might have negative consequences well beyond what those who espouse these slogans are willing to realize…

“Who can reconnect England with its lost values?” – When was this time? 1065? 1687? 1913? I’m not sure it was not always this way, this is just a new iteration perhaps, with more cheap goods to the fore. I agree with your post, but I just don’t know if pre-Thatcher or pre-anything, England was not as it is today.

“What we are seeing is pure greed and entitlement run amok.  These people have been fully supported, with no expectation of anything from them, for so long that they no longer even have expectations of their own behavior.”

The problem is that this statement could be equally well applied to the other side of the equation of those who’ve been receiving massive government aid (in both the UK and US). Their abuses have perhaps a deeper negative influence because it undermines the overall belief in the fairness of systems.
For example the financial and banking sector in both the US and UK received massive bailouts, and that diversion of resources has been a major factor in the development of austerity cuts. The proposed amount of cuts here in the US for example, comes hauntingly close to the amounts provided under the best known bailouts of Tarp and Tarf. And having received this massive and largely unsupervised largesse (and more in such as quantitive easing 1+2) its not like this sector can stay away from scandals. BOA’s recent attempt to foreclose on the Florida couple who owed no mortgage and never had one with that bank is a unfortunate example.
   And that kind of conduct by the financial elite is driving much of the social resentment which makes riots possible, frustration about getting locked in or down, but having little to be able to do about it all. And not really understanding how our economic system is manipulated-how many of the general public knew what a derivative was prior to the “Great Recession”?  Here in the US, the grass roots origin of the TEA party arose from these conditions. Granted they now have been nationally co-opted by the same powers that they initially arose in anger to counteract.
  Basically the mobs in England did not have a stated political agenda, but it will be a matter of time before one does develop. And that is likely why the Cameron government has stated it will interdict social media.
   Here in the US we will see similar disruptions. Partially because our elite has become divorced from the concept of noblisse oblige, or at least the idea of not showing overt contempt of the lower orders. For example Blankfein’s comment that “We are doing gods work” is so like statements made in another troubled era that he might as well provided parking spaces for Louis 16th and Marie….

 ”And at what point do we say that all people have to be held accountable for
their own actions, and taught that they simply must become producing
members of society if they want the benefits of that society?”

It’s all well and good to talk about individual accountability and that people “simply must” become producing members of society, but the huge question remains: What does the government do if they don’t? Let them starve in the street, or live in Mumbai-like slums? Put them on chain gangs? Imprison them?

A more horrifying question: What does the government do about the children of such people? Let them starve in the street or live in slums, too, or put them in giant state-run orphanages?

If the government (and the producing members of a society) want as many people as possible to become producing members of that society, these should probably be in place:

* A single-payer healthcare system. One can’t become a productive member of society if one is sick or injured and can’t afford a doctor. (The argument that people should be held accountable for paying for their own medical care individually is circular: They can only pay for it if they’re healthy enough to hold down a job and don’t have the Sword of Damocles of catastrophic illness or a child needing care hanging over them.)

* Free education (i.e., state-supported) up through the Ph.D. Some requirements for post-secondary edcuation–e.g., “reasonable progress toward a degree,” etc.–will be needed.

* A liveable minimum wage.

* Regulation of the off-shoring of jobs. People with high-school diplomas or less can’t find blue-collar jobs if corporations are allowed to reduce costs and up profits by paying people in distant countries a tenth of the wages they’d have to pay domestic workers to do the same job. “We’ve got people in Bangladesh who’ll do this work for two pounds sterling a day; what’s your lowest offer?” is not the way to help your citizens become producing members of society.

* Very strict enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. Every job has to be open to anybody–regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.–who can do the work. Every dwelling on the rental or sale market has to be likewise open to anybody who can pay the rent or the mortgage, keep the place clean, and not greatly disturb the neighbors.

* A rapid scaling back, at the other end of the economic and professional spectrum, of the old-boy networks: e.g., royalty, aristocracy, Oxbridge privilege, inherited power.

Without measures such as these (*, above), fulminating righteously about “people [being] held accountable for their own actions” and “simply must become producing members of society” will amount to only just that, and the cycle will continue: Privilege and discrimination leading to social unrest (riots), leading to cracking down and a thousand or so people being thrown in prison, leading to continued privilege and more discrimination, leading to social unrest, leading to….and so on.

I’d be interested to know more about whether the British government (and/or society at large) puts pressure on higher education institutions to demonstrate outcomes (i.e., accountability). It seems that in the United States, even as education funding is cut, demands for accountability rise.

And amazing story. Students often have milder versions. Unfortunately, the “rude” aspect the author speaks to actually extends to not informing the instructor about substantial personal challenges that may cause one to struggle in class.  I have students who take on too much in life (by choice) and then complain about the demands of class (including staying awake), only to lash out in course evals. Interestingly though, often those with the most outlandish demands personally (like dzenmar) are the least apt to complain or show signs of struggle. And odd, I think, outcome of human nature when we face great challenges vs. merely annoying ones.

Darwinian selection also occurs due to mate selection, number of offspring people choose to have, other social pressures and war, the existence of mutation prone phenotypes, etc….