<p>I dont think we really know all the circumstances. Grades are what matter, not attendance. While there is a relationship between the two, maybe this guy knew that today’s lecture wouldnt cover much test material, or that his semester’s already practically over, and there’s no way he can move up to the next grade level.</p>
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Grades are not all that matters. A student is at college to learn and to get an education. If the lecture would not further either of those, then there may be no use in going, but that shouldn’t be happening in college classes very often. Just because the material in a lecture won’t be on the final does not mean that it is worthless.</p>
<p>In gen ed freshmen lecture hall classes, it is VERY common for the “prof” to be a young first year visiting prof that just restates the material from the text.</p>
<p>“I expect no less of my own kids. If classes aren’t worth going to, what kind of college is that, anyway?”</p>
<p>That’s a great question, and my d’s don’t suffer fools easily. If the classes aren’t worth going to, they SHOULDN’T be going to them, and should be doing other things that feed their souls. I raised my kids, and I trust them, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.</p>
<p>I think so much depends on the set up of the school. For instance a friend’s d. often doesn’t attend class at the large U. she attends, however the lecture notes are on line and she really doesn’t miss anything.</p>
<p>On the other hand, at my son’s school most classes take attendance and there is a class participation portion of the grade. If very many classes are missed, it translates to an F for class participation. Also, his classes are all small and material missed in class does hurt when it comes test time.</p>
<p>With each kid, I sat down and calculated the cost for each class that they attended (it’s a truly horrendous number, and I don’t recommend doing this just before bedtime). I pointed out that we were paying this horrendous amount of money for them to go to classes. Then I mostly tried to keep my mouth shut. </p>
<p>My children lose the privilege of driving one of our cars–and therefore the privilege of going where they want when they want when they’re home–if their GPAs drop below a B (increased insurance costs). They’ve both maintained better-than-B averages. Other than that, I don’t know their grades.</p>
<p>My D mostly goes to class; my S skips a lot of classes. I think a lot depends on the school and the kids.</p>
<p>I’ve never skipped class, however, it is your DS’s responsibility to go. That’s what being an adult is all about: responsibility.</p>
<p>I do not ascribe to the “grades are what matter” viewpoint. I think learning, taking advantage of the resources offered, trying hard, studying, expanding horizons, etc. is what ultimately matters. So at a minimum that requires attending the lectures. Hopefully the professor has taken the time to prepare something enlightening and if there is even one new thing that is learned, or one idea that is sparked, it’s worth it to go. </p>
<p>I try to stay away from the grade thing, because then I’d be required to define what grade, exactly, I require of my son. That I cannot do. Sometimes I believe my son should have easily made an A. Sometimes I think a B is perfectly respectable. Hopefully but not too often, I will be confident that despite superhuman effort, son ended up with a gentleman’s C. I think that if we are supporting him in his college expenses, the least he can do it show up for classes and try.</p>
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<p>I agree with the first, but no it doesn’t always require attending the lectures. I took several classes whose lectures were enormously entertaining, but really you could have learned the material without them, and one where the lectures were so dreadful I stopped going after another student stood up in the middle of class and announced that this was the last lecture he was attending and I thought “You’re right, this is just a waste of time.” Luckily I had a great TA in that course and the reading material (Shakespeare) was fine too. For the most part though I was a compulsive attendee and people were always borrowing my notes because I never missed class.</p>
<p>Your son should double check the attendance requirements for his school or that class particularly. Some colleges can award an FA - failure for absence. They have a predetermined cut policy and if the student cuts class more than they should, they can fail the class.</p>
<p>“however, it is your DS’s responsibility to go.”</p>
<p>No. My DS’s responsibility is to learn the material. He has already learned this material at another university. He is doing the work required, problem sets, and taking the quizes, midterms and finals. Grades at his school are not at all based on attendance. (Maybe there is the rare class where attendance is required - labs, etc, but not the class in question.)</p>
<p>In order to learn the material, he must go to class. I’m saying that you can’t call him at 7 am every day to make sure he went. It’s his responsibility. That’s what being an adult is all about, and you shouldn’t coddle him.</p>
<p>And I’m not trying to tell you how to raise your son. It’s a suggestion.</p>
<p>Its not a question of him learning the material. He’s already taken the class. He took the class at University of California at Berkeley as a high school senior(he is now a college freshman at another school). He knows the material. It wasn’t a choice as to whether or not he could not enroll in this class - his school does not give credit for classes at other universities. His responsibility is to know the material. How he learns that material is up to him. He got an A+ in the same course at UCB and clearly knows the material. He doesn’t need to sit through lectures on the material again. He’s doing the homework, taking the tests and doing fine(90-100 on all work so far this term). If he wasn’t doing the work cuz he’d done it before I’d been asking him to do the work. But that isn’t the question. The question is, is it ok to skip class. Yea, this time it is. A thread on his schools forum indicated only 60-70% of students there attend class in general. And a huge percentage of those go on to get their Phd’s. Its not the end of the world if they don’t go to class, clearly. I think it shows that students can learn the material without going to class. In high school my DS self studied lots of things, for example BC Calculus - it wasn’t offered. He learned the material, he took the AP test and got a 5.<br>
Sorry I’m tired. And I don’t think we have the same perspective. And will probably never agree. My son is not a young man that has ever been coddled when it comes to education. He choose what in his words is “the hardest school in the universe”. I know that is debatable, but I also trust he knows how to work hard & that he is working hard. He may sleep til noon if he can but he’s up until 4 or 5 in the morning working on problem sets & studying and find time to explore problems that are not being presented in class. I actually know that when he’s not in class he’s working on some math problems that remain unsolved to the worlds mathematicians. He’s working, working really hard. I don’t think missing those lectures is going to matter one iota.</p>
<p>My husband and I don’t monitor our son’s class attendance. I can’t imagine our parents asking us whether we were attending our classes when we were going to college either. My son has admitted to missing a couple of lectures, and I’ve given him a motherly tsk-tsk. In reality, I feel that as long as he’s doing well, we should stand back and let him make these decisions for himself.</p>
<p>I took Calculus self-paced in college so I wouldn’t have to go to class. Admittedly I’d had calculus before, but had bombed the AP, but I don’t think I missed ANYTHING by learning calculus from handouts and going to the Math Center on the rare occasions when I was confused.</p>
<p>I don’t think I ever took a college class where they took attendance. I guess that’s part of the no hand holding reputation of my college? :)</p>
<p>I get the impression that my school has some sort of policy that requires all the professors to have some form of mandatory attendance. Out of all the classes that I’ve taken so far (and I am a senior), only two of them have not factored attendance into the grade. Most of them allow you to miss 2 days of class before it starts to deduct from your grade, but some professors (particularly ones that have classes meeting once a week) only allow one or even none. </p>
<p>I skip sometimes, and I made the mistake of mentioning it to my mother once. After she went on a rant about what she presumes to be the supreme importance of going to class in college (not that she would actually know, since she never went herself) I decided to make a point not to mention it ever again. I know how many classes I am allowed to miss and which classes I cannot miss or I’ll be behind, and I don’t let it affect my grades. </p>
<p>I really don’t understand why most of the professors have mandatory attendance requirements. I can see the point in studio or lab classes, where most of your work is done in-class so not being in class is equivalent to not doing homework for other classes, but I do not see the point for lecture classes. If the students think they can do well in the class without actually going, then let them. If they end up doing badly because they never go, then they learn the hard way and their grades are affected anyway. If they do well without going to class, well then that’s 15 extra hours a week to do something else. If other people see it as a waste of opportunity, well, that’s on the student.</p>
<p>There have been only a couple courses I’ve had so far where attendance is “required” (I’m a junior). One professor in particular is quite exacting about having people come to class and sends email to people if they don’t show up (true story!). </p>
<p>Other professors lecture on the socratic method and grade you on your participation. This is not attendance per se because they’re not tabulating absences, nor will coming to class and not saying anything help you.</p>
<p>Another professor showed lots of movies in class (early in the morning) so people have tendencies to skip, so he collects a short homework each class session (graded credit/no credit, if you miss less than 7 you get full credit for attendance, otherwise zero credit for attendance)</p>
<p>I’ll admit I skip occasionally but it’s mostly when I get really exhausted, sleep-deprived, etc, and when an opportunity comes around to rest up a bit (being able to make it up, of course) I’ll take it - it’s significantly preferable to getting sick and missing a whole week of class, or more.</p>
<p>I went to a small womens college where there was NO hand holding ( I wish) but there were high expectations of us which included participating in class. No slouching and snoozing in the back of some jammed packed lecture hall. We had to contribute so we had to BE there. Hand holding is irrelevant here.</p>
<p>I look at it like this- since son’s lectures are funded by moi-
and for every lecture he attends (or not), I have had to sit through multiple music lessons with hamfisted, unprepared children thrumping along, he can deign to attend a boring class. (not really- all my students are hardworking, diligent, always prepared, phenomenally talented, gifted, easily coachable, avid listeners…)
In some classes, teachers will hand out surprise “freebie” points for kids who are there. Like if there’s a class on Friday and 50% of the room is empty, teach will say something like- OK everyone here today gets an extra 5 points on next week’s lab/quiz/whatever. I think that’s a good policy, kind of like unannounced pop quizzes- but not as punitive.</p>