Classroom Etiquette In 2008

1982. Graduation from San Diego State University. Whisked away to Seattle, where I worked at service sector jobs like McDonald’s and 7-Eleven for twenty four years, until I finally decided to go back to school in order to get what the kids refer to as “a real job.” I stepped back into a classroom for the first time since graduation in the middle of March, 2008; and, like Alice, fell down the rabbit hole. It’s a little like those time travel movies where someone gets hit on the head, and (depending on whether the movie is fantasy or reality) they wake up back in their youth, or they go into a coma somewhere in the 60's, and wake up twenty years later.

The rules have definitely changed over the years.

The first time I attended college was actually in 1971, when I went to De Anza Jr. College in the Bay Area, in California. In those days registration was conducted by getting hundreds of students, in order to sign up for classes, to line up and push and shove through the line (which went through the cramped hallways of the student union building; the only place on campus that had barely enough space to accommodate this ) from table to table hoping that enrollment for the class that you wanted would still be open when you got there. Frankly, even then, the system seemed antiquated. (So much for “the good old days.”) By the time I left, in 1974, telephone registration was just starting up. And when I went to San Diego in 1978, long lines were a thing of the past.

And now registration is online, in the comfort of your own home. The rules definitely have changed.

Some things, therefore, are better; but then, some things (I would judge) are not. The thing I noticed most about school in 2008 is that classroom etiquette differs radically from that of 1971. In today’s classroom a student can wander in at any time he wants. It doesn’t matter what time the class started; he or she just comes in and sits down without any apology. Nor does it matter whether he or she disrupts the teacher during his or her lecture, or that the attention of the class was momentarily diverted. If the student wishes to use the restroom they just get up and leave, without so much as a “by your leave,” as the English would say. Or maybe the student decides he just doesn’t want to show up at all. In 1971, we would have called that “rude.”

By being so completely thoughtless, I was telling the teacher (even though I didn’t necessarily mean to) that the time and energy that she had invested in being there to teach me was being wasted. Furthermore, because this was a reader’s theater class, I was wasting the other students’ precious time also. I felt justly ashamed, and I assure you that I was never late again.

For the same reasons, leaving the classroom without at least asking permission, was frowned upon. (To be fair, I suspect that the reason that it is now accepted, has to do with the physical problems involved with pregnancy, and other such medical inconveniences.) And not showing up for class at all counted against your grade; three times tardy and you were dropped from the class.

Now it is 2008; I am going to school one more time, and all the differences take some getting used to. As a type 2 diabetic, it is now necessary for me to take frequent trips to the restroom, and I find myself uncomfortable with the fact that all I have to do, when so needed, is get up out of my chair and walk out the door. It feels terribly wrong not to say “excuse me,” or “I’ll be right back.” (Of course, that would also disrupt the class - but, at least, it’s polite.) When I am late for class, which I try not to be, I apologize to the teacher, and affirm that I will not do it again. In the context of today’s schoolroom, I get the feeling that this appears to be extraordinary behavior. And I watch as students trickle into class, as much as twenty minutes late, and wonder if they really have any respect for the teacher, who has worked hard to prepare the lesson for the day.
What is more important is the question of how these students are going to participate in the real world outside of school. Businesses still expect employees to be on time, to show respect for their superiors. Employees may not have to raise their hand in order to leave the room, but they still have to show proper consideration by excusing themselves politely. These rules of etiquette are disciplines which we were supposed to learn in school, so that we could function when we got out into the real world of business. In our customer service-driven business environment of today it is a necessity to observe these rules, because the customer is then satisfied with our service, and therefore, will want to continue to do business with us.

And how can we achieve that, when we don’t show the proper respect?