COLLOQUY

I was a creative and oft-requested Kindergarten teacher for 16 years, and was a strict disciplinarian as well. My students loved and respected me, and my classroom was a joyful place. Students of all ages feel safe and act responsibly when the person in charge is truly in charge.

I will never believe that students of any age have a "right" to be rude or threatening to their teachers. I wonder about the professor who would be ready to retire if his students were always on time and turned in their assignments promptly, creating sites of consent rather than dissent. What does honest intellectual "dissent" have to do with tardiness, talking, passing notes, ignoring assignments, being threatening or eating in class? True dissent requires serious thought.

Students who are permitted to abuse their professors are going to have a hard time adjusting to the real world, where rudeness and lack of self-discipline seldom bring fulfillment.

-- Peggy Constantine, Publications Coordinator, University of La Verne (posted 3/29, 3:59 p.m., E.S.T.)

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