As each of us has grown and matured through the years and attended year after year of school, we have all witnessed students who feel the need to act out.
Looking at the story on page one, student issues are on the rise to start this semester. While there is no explaination behind it, some feel it has to do with the “Generation Me“ problem.
At a school like Grand Rapids Community College, there is a diverse group of individuals who make up our student body. According to the GRCC website, in Winter of 2009, the student body was made up of students from across the United States as well as from 22 other countries around the world.
With this diverse group comes many different classroom situations. Most students have had at least one class with a student who felt that they either knew everything and had to tell everyone or simply felt that class time was their time to talk.
Either way, this all boils down to a growing problem in our culture. There is simply a lack of respect for the elders in our society. As GRCC teachers continue to work to make classroom etiquette clear at the beginning of each semester, it never seems to be enough.
While classroom rules are laid out in the syllabus each semester, this doesn’t seem to stop certain students from acting out. Issues range from disrupting class, to playing games on laptops, and also the always growing problem of texting in class.
Even though it’s clear that these are all unacceptable in class, this never seems to stop students from doing them. While this may be acceptable in other places for students, these acts are not acceptable in the classroom.
This is not your home or your work place. When you are in class, it’s your teacher’s time and respect is due to the individuals who are there to help.
Students will sometimes bring up the “I’m paying for this class so I can do what I want” excuse, but guess what, the student sitting next to you is also paying for that class and is trying to learn.
While you may not care about what is going on in class, there are students who are trying to learn and make something of themselves. By disrupting class, not only are you disrespecting the teacher, but you are also holding back the students who are actually trying to learn.
Simply stated, put away the cell phone, the laptop, and the Kindle and stop talking when teaching is going on. You may not care about your future, but other students care about theirs.
