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Updated Sunday, November 22, 2009 12:24 am TWN, By Daniel J. Bauer

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I'm sorry, but not in my classroom

I have mentioned in previous columns a short list of “dos” and “don'ts” that I use. Readers need not agree with them. These rules work for me, and I think they work for everyone else in my classrooms. I inform my students of these expectations in the first week of every new semester. I may have to repeat myself once or twice in future classes, but hey, I am not a perfect person myself, and sometimes I also need reminders in life.

My list of basics for class behavior goes like this: Students may drink in class, but not eat. (“Please, though, not beer, okay?”) I explain that the aroma of good food makes everyone in the room hungry, and then people think of their next meal and stop listening to my voice. Students may not make or accept telephone calls or text messages when we're in session. (“Your Romeo or Juliet can probably survive for 50 minutes without hearing from you,” is what I fantasize saying, but never do.) Students may not engage themselves with computer screens in class. (“The tuition your parents or you are paying is too high to waste by ignoring what we're doing here.” Those words I do say.)

My biggest CAN'T DO in class? My students may not carry on running conversations when classmates or I am speaking. I do not tolerate this. My discomfort on this score may stem from a difference in our cultures, but talking while others have the floor strikes me as rude, as boorish. “A quick remark, cracking a fast joke, that's okay,” I say. “But we will show basic courtesy in this classroom. We will always respect each other.”

Having said all of this today, however, something still nags at me. Whenever I walk by a classroom (on my campus, not elsewhere) and see students truly goofing off while their instructor is laboring away in the front of the class, I wonder what is wrong with the instructor. In my mind, I ask, “Why do you let your students treat you and their classmates like that?”

Father Daniel J. Bauer SVD is a priest and associate professor in the English Department at Fu Jen Catholic University.

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