This Course Is Adults Only
mozman:
"Students shouldn't bring their kids to class"
http://chronicle.com/article/This-Course-Is-Adults-Only/130674/
Seriously, what is this bint's problem? Those who follow me on the fora know I am usually not one to overly advocate for the student position, but I have never had a problem when graduate students or undergrads have needed to bring their kids to class.
She seems pissed that permission wasn't asked or advance notification given. Usually, those kids are there because something in the parent's daily schedule got cocked up - its not something that would be known in advance.
In my experience, the kids are almost never disruptive, and if they are, the parent takes them out.
Hell, once daycare was unexpectedly closed due to a flooding emergency and I had to take my 7 month old daughter with me to class. She woke up and wanted out of the stroller, so I just held her and continued with my lecture.
I have respect for students who are also parents. This teacher just sounds like a b*tch who takes herself too seriously to me.
cgfunmathguy:
I find the last paragraph to be most telling.
Quote
Perhaps I should just be glad that only once has a graduate student brought in a visitor who wasn't a child. Years ago when I was a new untenured faculty member, a student brought her mother to class. The mother's determination to share her unsolicited comments was far worse than having two toddlers in the room.
I'm going to ask a somewhat silly question that the author completely glosses over. She complains that she wasn't notified ahead of time. What if the student did send an email beforehand stating that the student's children would be accompanying the student that night? Would she then allow it, or would she point to the syllabus and say "Sorry, but 'no visitors' means 'no visitors'"? It seems silly to get bent out of shape about the lack of forewarning if you're not going to allow the situation to occur. Maybe she wants to say that, but feels she's been denied the chance because of the lack of a warning. If so, that's easy to fix. All she would need to do is verbally announce to the student (before entering, preferably, but as entry is being made due to tardiness would also work) that she's sorry but visitors aren't allowed in class.
Having taught many non-traditional students in the past, I think the author is making a mountain from a molehill. From the article, it appears that the class meets one night per week for several hours. Do you really want graduate students missing a full week's worth of material and discussion because the babysitter got sick? She noted that several students had backup arrangements. Fine, but not everyone does. If you're new to an area or have no friends or family in the area (besides your cohort), there are no backup plans to be made. You don't know enough people to be able to make this work.
This professor needs to realize that "Life Happens!!" and that people will respond to disruptions in the routine differently. Thus, she needs to help the situation rather than complain about it. Maybe, she could even propose a solution to her chair for the problem at hand. Instead, she's complaining without trying to solve the problem.
A possible solution would be having people (undergrads in the major/education/social work?) available in the evening who would be willing to babysit for a small fee per child. That would allow the parents whose plans fell through for a babysitter on a particular night an opportunity to still come to class without receiving the stink-eye from a professor who just doesn't get it sometimes.
erzuliefreda:
We are not allowed to allow children in class because our university's insurance covers only enrolled students and faculty/staff. Even when we had furlough days a couple of years ago, we were told to stay away ourselves because any injury would not be covered by the school insurance that day.
rebelgirl:
Quote from: erzuliefreda on February 09, 2012, 04:22:13 PM
We are not allowed to allow children in class because our university's insurance covers only enrolled students and faculty/staff. Even when we had furlough days a couple of years ago, we were told to stay away ourselves because any injury would not be covered by the school insurance that day.
This. If you let students bring kids to class - I hope your institution won't throw you under the bus if something goes wrong.
I've let students bring children when day care falls through, etc. - I'm breaking the rules and know I am running a risk to help a student keep up. My administrators are pretty humane people. Still, I hope I never have a liability test case bite me because I tried to help a student deal with an unexpected child care situation.
I was surprised the writer of the article didn't bring up liability. I can relate to her frustration with parents whose attitude is "deal with it." At minimum the student should give the professor as much heads up as possible and take the kid out of the room if there's a disruption. The student who "shrugged" when the kids were disruptive would not be someone I'd let stay in the class. That student evidently didn't care if his kids disrupted other students. And disrupting other students' learning is not his right.
chaosbydesign:
I personally agree with the writer of the article. Kids don't belong in graduate classes and having them there could only be a distraction for the other students in the class. I'm sure a lot of people will attack me for this, but I think that if students' childcare plans fall through they should skip class, not bring their kids with them.
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