the happy conservative

To expound on my lazy professor theory, I’m going to take just a little time to pick on classes that require/maintain a roster of attendance. 

I think everyone should go to class. After all, that’s why we’re here. I can read books on my own; I pay so much to hear the professor lecture and to learn from him. 

Why would a teacher maintain and require attendance? It clearly requires more work on their part to keep attendance than simply to lecture to whomever shows up. It must be because they worry no one will come to class if they don’t force them. While classes may not always and everywhere entertain, they should have some merit on their own. That’s why we pay professors. 

If I don’t go to class, I face two possibilities:

1. I miss something important to my education that I cannot gather from the assigned reading. 
2. I don’t miss anything. 

Since I have more information about my ability to catch up on missed material and on my opportunity cost than anyone else, I should have the power to choose to skip class without an additional tax that applies equally regardless of ability. If the professor wants to raise the cost of missing class, he make his lecture more interesting. I should not be punished for skipping class to do something more important if the professor can’t manage to make attending lecture worthwhile. Keeping attendance is the last refuge of the inept lecturerer, a professor so boring or useless that no one will attend his class unless he docks their grades for absence. 

Outside of Ecomp, I’ve run into this system rarely at Washu. Teachers here generally rely on the worth of the material and their skills as lecturers to draw students to class, certain that those who don’t attend will reap the punishment on the midterm and final exams. And if you can manage to get an A without going, they don’t punish your ability with classwide absence taxes. 

Other universities frequently keep attendance, require attendance, and use pop quizzes to entice students to waste valuable time sitting in classes where the professor cares so little about his vocation that students could get good grades without attending. I pity those professors who have so little talent or inclination that they cannot keep students interested in the material, and I pity those students who are bullied into classes taught by such useless numbskulls. 

The bottom line: students should be able to avoid classes whose lectures are not useful or interesting and should be willing and able to accept the consequences come exam time. Requiring attendance hurts able students who can score well without attending class and allows worthless professors to waste students’ time without putting forth effort or skill.