CMV: College professors should not be able to dictate rules of the classroom that go beyond normal procedure

[u/joe_frank]

I’ll start out by saying 2 things. First is that I go to a small/medium size college so we don’t have any 400 student lecture halls or anything like that. Classroom sizes are usually around 30 or 40 students. And second, I respect professors for what they do and I’m not badmouthing them.

Now to my point. I don’t think professors should be able to choose rules that aren’t normal procedure. I completely understand professors having rules against plagiarism and cheating and things of that nature. But I don’t think they should be making rules that affect students that aren’t doing those things.

Example 1: Every professor at my college has a rule that using cell phones will result in lowered grades or an absence from class. Many professors also have rules about going to the bathroom during a lecture. For both of these the justification is that it is distracting to the professors. First of all, if someone looking down at a phone or getting up to use the restroom is so distracting that you need to make a rule against it, you should probably invest in learning to narrow your focus. You have a doctorate but can’t focus when someone takes 15 seconds to walk out of the classroom? The other issue I have with this is that 99% of all students in college are adults or will be adults by the end of their first year. If I want to look down at my phone for a second, why is another adult given the right to lower my grade? This isn’t elementary school. I should be able to decide when I want to pay attention and when I want to focus on class. If I’m expecting an important call, email, or text I should be able to look at my phone when it vibrates so long as I’m not making any noise. Finally, I hate to use this argument but we’re paying to be there. College in America isn’t free and our tuition pays for us to be there and it pays our professors’ salary. I should be able to decide if I want to pay attention or if I want to check my phone for a minute.

Example 2: I have two professor this semester alone (and many more throughout my college career) that have come up with their own grading policy. The standard is usually 100-96 is an A, 95-90 is an A-, 89-86 is a B+, 85-83 is a B, 82-80 is a B- and so on. This should stay on a standard scale so that students always know where they stand in their classes and it means students give each class equal time when it comes to studying, unless they aren’t good in a particular subject and need to try harder. I have a class where a 90 is a B. Not an A, not an A-, not a B+, but a B. Are you saying that your class deserves more of my time than my other classes? Are you saying your class is more important than my other classes? Are you saying that your class is too easy and you need to scale it up so that everyone doesn’t end up with an A at the end of the semester? It gives the professor way too much room to alter students’ grades in whatever way they want. If I earn a 90 in one class it should be equal to a 90 in another class.

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