The Chronicle of Higher Education: Colloquy

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The rise of incivility and rudeness in the classroom does mirror the same development in our society. The article makes many good points about the causes.

One thing I would add is that many of our students have grown up believing that life is endless instant sensory gratification and they therefore expect that in the classroom, too. Don't gratify them and you commit the greatest crime of all against them -- you bore them. Some feel free to talk and do other things in class because there can be no greater offense against them than to bore them.

We may rail that we're not in the business of entertaining them, but the reality is that many can be reached in no other way.

I, too, believe that some fault lies with administrations that refuse to punish unacceptable behavior because they're so afraid of lawsuits. However, I also believe that we are also in an age where deterrents don't much work.

-- Dr. Edmund Midura, Asst. Prof., Clark Atlanta University (posted 3/29, 4:39 p.m., E.S.T.)
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