Do Students Need To Be Taught Class Room Etiquette?

I don’t know what it is like in other universities, but in my classes there is rarely any quiet. Perhaps it is the Israeli students who have not been taught the proper behavior that should be displayed in a classroom. This week we had a special visit from the Dean of the Communications school the purpose of his visit was to educate us on proper class room etiquette.


The first order was being on time. The lecture that he spoke in starts every week at 12:30 and I don’t think any of the students know when it starts. When I got to the university at 10 to 12 a fellow student stopped me and asked why no one was coming to the Dean’s lecture, I told her that the class doesn’t start until 12:30 she was surprised. It was well after 13:00 when students stopped showing up and every time the door opened he stopped talking.


He went on about how we go to a great university and other students would have loved to take our place. He spoke about how we have all these amazing lecturers who come to speak and is it really asking too much for us to give them just a little respect? He made a suggestion that I think if the university really went through with it would make a change in the classroom behavior. What was suggested was for every student who comes late to a lecture they should have their name taken down and for the next lesson they should have to make a presentation to the class. If they continue to disrupt classes they will be sent to a personal meeting with the dean. The final stage would be to send the student in question to a disciplinary hearing which could end in suspension from the institution.


It all just sounds so juvenile but they sad thing is that there are students who really do need to be taught how to act in a classroom. This ordeal was yesterday and today I was sitting in the front row of a class, and you know how people say that if you sit in the front rows of a class chances are you will do better because there is less distraction? Well in the second row directly behind me were these Israeli girls who wouldn’t stop talking the whole time and the lecturer didn’t do or say anything to them. These same girls had been sitting next to me during the lecture with the dean and because they were talking the lecturer after the dean had to stop class 3 to 4 times to ask for quiet. I’m still wondering why she didn’t just throw them out, that’s what I would have done.


Is this only in our school? Is it like this in other universities too?