Low Chi Chia

I could barely get through my classes yesterday. More than half my students in both sections were absent. I was there, but not there. I am worried more about the Design students, since the students who have stopped coming were doing very well up to this point.

They have so much more on their minds than classes. They are trying for jobs for the summer and maybe something is going on at home. The last part of each semester, I lose up to 10% of my students. That number is low compared to other departments. We have a strict attendance policy for studio courses, but this semester, nearly every one in the Art Department is wrestling with enforcing it.

Regardless of how well a student manages to make up the work, they have missed a vital part of the class if they are absent from class discussions, demonstrations etc. Some of my brightest students negotiate their lives as if their actions have no impact on anyone but themselves. They do not consider the implications of not doing what they have agreed to do. To them it is not a big deal.

Their word is the ultimate contract of how they conduct their lives. Many compartmentalize, they do not lie to this person because they value that person's friendship, but they feel fine about lying to someone they don't care about. They get away with it, or are forgiven and they do it again. Sometimes, they even up the ante, to test how far they can push against authority. They do not get that they are the ultimate authority of their conduct, and that they are diminished but not being true to their word.

I must hold the students accountable for their agreements or they will learn from me that honoring their word is arbitrary or negotiable. Or, worse, that I don't expect them to conduct themselves with honor.