Untimely Students

Our friends make fun of my husband because he is ultra timely. On-time for him means five minutes before the actual arrival time, which, honestly, can be a bit annoying. It got to the point if we were one minute late, people would begin to wonder where we are.

As annoying as I find this socially (really, do you want to be the only person at a party yet to get started?), I carry it in my academic career. As an undergrad, I was about 20-30 mins early to every class. As a grad student, I am still that early but don't go into the actual class until maybe ten minutes to starting time (and I'm still the only person in there!).

The one time I was late to a graduate class was horrendous. It was my very first semester of grad school and this class was insanely over my head and taught by Dr. Bigwig. What made it truly awful was that I drove all the way to campus and once there realized I did not have my wallet on me. So not only did I not have my parking card, but I also didn't have any cash for the parking garages or meters that make up parking at the school. I don't do well in these situations, so I panicked. I feel it is also important to note that this was late summer and my car's air conditioning wasn't the best. So, since I am freakish about getting to class on time, I had maybe 45 mins before class started. I drove like a maniac back home, grabbed my wallet, and sped back to class, hyperventilating the entire time. I parked, ran in the thick humid heat to class, and burst into a room of students with their desks all in a circle. You know the circle. There was the briefest pause as I felt all eyes on me, and then the conversation continued. No empty spots were in the circle, so for the first half of the class, my red, flustered, sweaty self was sitting right behind the circle.

I don't remember how late I was, but it was probably about 15-20 mins late. And wow, talk about overreacting.

But maybe it is this sense of urgency that made me so angry when the class I was teaching ended and as I was packing up my things, two of my students who had been absent, sauntered into the class, looked around, and said oh-so-casually:

"I guess we missed class."

Uh, you think? Not to mention, they had an in-class essay to write that day! Where was the urgency, the stress, the fear?

Or what about another student, who walked into the class with two minutes left to go and asked to sign the attendance sheet.

Where does that self-assurance come from? What makes these students believe that class is like a drop-in party, a Open House? And why, oh why, does nobody seem to stress themselves out to high levels of anxiety like I do?