Civilitude vs. rudeitude

Professors (that's what the board is calling us these days), you might want to read an article in today’s Los Angeles Daily News. It’s called “Missing manners a rude awakening in college classes.”

They arrive late, talk on cell phones in class, throw temper tantrums, send ill-mannered e-mails and make threats.

…[A]cross the nation, professors … are watching students in their classrooms sink into this abyss of rude behavior, prompting discussions on how to encourage civility….

...Stephanie Badali, 19, and her friend Dorine Farsad, 18, said students who bring laptops to class are often surfing the Internet—and there's little professors can do.

"It's like high school all over again," Farsad said. "As much as a teacher will say please don't do it, they are just going to do it anyway."….

I’ve noticed that, in almost every one of my classes, some students—often, several students—concentrate on their laptops rather than on me or the discussion. That's new.

Plus there’s more droolage. I don’t wanna generalize though.

And then there’s cursing—and I don’t mean the fluffy & friendly kind—I'm talkin' the "B" word and the dreaded "C" word. And spitting—though that happens outside, mostly. And sneering. And sleeping. And talking on the phone.

And even rank air biscuitry. OK, what do you say or do when they do that? (Last Friday, in my honors class, flatulencia happened, evidently. It was ghastly. I moved the lectern ever southward, until I almost leaned out the doorway.)

—Tell us your “rude and crude” stories. We’d love to hear ‘em! Or tell us what you do about outbreaks of rudity and crudity in class. Inquiring minds wanna know.

(I hear that Saddleback students are way worse than IVC students. Is that true?)

P.S.: ONE OF OUR more clever readers sent us pictures of his favorite female icons to post on the blog (Audrey Hepburn, et al.), but I can't seem to open his attachment. In the meantime, here's one of my all-time BABEraham Lincolns:

She's just the BEST. Check out "Rid of Me."