Comment by alexpotato
18 days ago
> What has changed exactly? Chronic absenteeism. As a friend in Sociology put it, “Attendance is a HUGE problem—many just treat class as optional.” Last semester across all sections, my average student missed two weeks of class.
I graduated from college in 2001 and the above was true back then too so not sure why the author is making this seem like a new thing.
e.g. for CompSci classes at Rutgers back then:
- First week of class: no open seats in a giant lecture hall
- Halfway through semester: about 50% of people were showing up
- 3/4 of semester: I distinctly remember there being ~10 of us in a lecture hall able to hold 100 people and someone asking "where is everybody??"
- Final exam: lecture hall 90% full with people taking the final
I never went to class myself unless I was required, had an exam, or loved it. Sometimes I would skip my research advisor's class to do research in his lab. Even if I wasn't in class, I was there though. I'd get notes from someone.
Graduated 2005 in New Zealand, for every large class it was the same as this as well.