Ever wasted five minutes of the beginning of each class period so the professor can take attendance? Didn’t you get enough of this in elementary, middle, and high school? Certain professors take roll call every time the class meets, and here is why I usually have more respect for the professors who don’t.

I went to a community college in Massachusetts before transferring to a private college in upstate New York. At both colleges, I ran into professors who did not take attendance. These professors treated me and other students like adult human beings capable of making our own choices about whether to show up for class or not. We understood if we didn’t show up our final grade may be affected, and we chose accordingly. However, I also ran into professors who listed on the syllabus what a student’s final grade would be if he or she missed a certain number of absences. These same professors took roll call in the beginning of every class. And I’m not talking about the first few weeks of class in order to learn our names, I’m talking about the entire semester. Yes. Professors waste their own time and ours by taking attendance at the beginning of a class. Nothing could make me feel more like I’m back in high school. After being told college is where they treat you like adults, I shake my head at the fact I have to call out, “Here!” and raise my hand high in the air when my name is called.

You may ask, “Why are you getting so upset at announcing your presence in class?” Well, I’ll tell you. It is not the professor’s responsibility to make sure I’m in class. Only I am responsible for this. The fact the professor makes a little mark next to your name if you’re not in attendance, makes you feel just a little more guilty for skipping, or being sick, or being busy with something else, or having some other valid excuse as to why you couldn’t go to class. You wonder, “Will the professor treat me differently now that I’ve missed a class? Will it affect my grade?” This is unnecessary stress since the only thing the professor should be worried about is whether you turn your work in on time or not. The professor should focus on your actual grades for the course.

People can certainly argue, “This is the adult world, and we have to do a lot of things we’d rather not do!” However, I’d argue back that I am paying for this college experience. This may make me sound like a brat, but I’ve learned that I don’t learn anything from the professors I don’t respect, and if I’m not learning anything, I feel as if it is a waste of money. If I can actually be learning the course material alone in the library instead of listening to a lecture, then I will. If I’m not going to be treated like an adult in a certain class, I’d rather not go. If I don’t go, then that’s my independent adult choice, and I shouldn’t be told how to make those choices. When a professor makes attendance a part of the student’s final grade, this takes the choice right out of our hands, and suddenly, courses have become as mandatory as a high school gym class. By taking these choices out of our hands, we have one less adult choice to make independently, because other people are still making our choices for us. (And they wonder why it takes so long for our generation to grow up?)

Now, there are a couple arguments for taking attendance. Some classes are student-discussion based and need students in order to have a meaningful conversation that day. However, that would go in the class participation portion of their grade, and if people skip many days, then their final grade will reflect that. But when a class is lecture-heavy, and the professor still takes attendance, it seems like they are just making sure they have an audience. Why do these lecture-heavy professors even need to know our names? They’re never going to call on us anyway. If I learned all the course material by reading the textbook or doing the online homework, then why can’t I just show up for the final and take it? Why will my grade be hurt if I do all the work, pass all the tests, and turn in papers on time, but have better things to do with my time than listen to a lecture that may or may not be intriguing about stuff I’ve already learned? Not to mention the first five minutes of that lecture being wasted because the professor still doesn’t know our names and we are more than halfway through the semester.

Some professors have told me random people (such as team coaches) ask once in a while whether their players are showing up for class or not. However, it’s also not the coaches responsibility to make adult choices for their players. If a coach is worried about a player’s academic grades, then they can ask the professor for their current grade in the class and that should give the coach a good idea about their player’s academic life.

It’s understandable if a professor wants to take attendance the first day of class. Maybe even the second day. However, there comes a point when a professor needs to stop wasting time. Looking back at both colleges I’ve attended, I have the most respect for those professors that didn’t take attendance at all. They learned our names by our class participation. When the professor asks the class a question, they ask me my name before I answer, and this is how I feel like an adult. My train of thought is usually something like, “Yes. This professor is going to remember my name now because I answered that question!” Soon, the professor doesn’t have to ask our names anymore, because he or she learned them. And for some reason this concept of “learning” combined with "college" is ringing a bell. . .