Monday, April 04, 2011

When the Customer Student Is King

Some time ago, I had a student answer his phone in class and carry on a conversation as he walked out of the room. When he returned, I approached him and quietly reminded him that he lost points for answering the phone in class. He asked me where the dean's office was located—the academic version of "I want to see the manager."

I told him where to find the dean and if he left, he wouldn't be permitted back because the class had been disrupted too many times that day. He did leave, and later that day, an administrative assistant from the dean's office contacted me and said the student had filed a complaint against me. She wanted to know if he could re-enter my class.

Read Educating our 'Customers' by Brian P. Hill.

4 comments:

John Byron said...

Wow, that is a frustrating story. I once had a student show up 10 minutes late to every class. So I locked the door. He was on time thereafter.

It seems that because students pay for the class they can do as they please. I am not really sure what the answer is to this problem.

Pilgrim said...

"...an inaccurate sense of entitlement."

Inaccurate?

Phil Norris said...

Students take their cue from the culture AND from administrators who have the commercial mentality. This need happen one time and word gets out. We need more no-nonsense types as administrators. Principled administrators attract students. Some of them THINK that taking the soft approach will attract and hold students. Nothing could be further from reality.

Those students who see education as a right have already lost much in their education.

Phil Norris said...

Students take their cue from the culture AND from administrators who have the commercial mentality. This need happen one time and word gets out. We need more no-nonsense types as administrators. Principled administrators attract students. Some of them THINK that taking the soft approach will attract and hold students. Nothing could be further from reality.

Those students who see education as a right have already lost much in their education.