Monday, March 30, 2009

Kids these days

In the Economics lecture today, two students were spending the whole class on their laptops, browsing Facebook and doing homework for another class.  This was in the big lecture hall; TA's spread out through the room while the professor gives the lecture.

These students were causing a minor disruption for the other students, so at the end of class I called them out.  I was able to read their names off their Facebook accounts, so I said, "[Student Name], who is your TA?"

I was expecting them to be surprised by someone they had never met before calling them out by name like this, but they were not.  They simply answered, as if it was a casual conversation.  They did not seem the slightest bit guilty.  One of them even asked me, after she had answered, "Why do you want to know?"  I answered, "I think that your TA should know you were on Facebook for most of the class."

Neither student seemed to comprehend that they had been caught doing anything wrong.  There was no guilt at all.  It was as if they considered their behavior to be perfectly normal.

Why do they even bother coming to lecture?  They clearly were not listening to anything the professor was saying.  Do they think that they will magically absorb the material by being in the same room?  I guess this kind of thing is based on habits learned in high school, where showing up and not causing to much trouble was all they needed to do to pass.

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