R-E-S-P-E-C-T

"Home training" isn't what it used to be.  For the most part it just seems to be nonexistent!  I am in a professional degree program.  Some of my classmates are young, and by young I mean they weren't old enough to drink when we started school last semester.  Some are much older.  You would think that 95 grown, educated people would know how to act in public, but alas, they do not.  It's like being in a room full of 1st graders.

Picture it: the lecture hall, 8am.  It is the first class of the morning.  After spending a few minutes preparing a power point presentation and making sure the microphone is functioning, the professor is ready to get started.  She steps from behind the podium.  Nothing changes.  At least half of the room continues talking, laughing, and carrying on as if there was no class about to take place.  The professor has to make motions with her arms while saying "settle down, settle down, let's get started."  Class lasts 50 minutes.  With only five minutes left, the professor asks for questions, or makes an announcement, or finishes the last parts of the day's lecture.  People start loudly zipping bags, putting desks down, talking, rattling papers.  A "shhhh" is heard coming from the front of the room.

What's wrong with this picture? How about EVERYTHING!  In a room full of grown ass individuals, this should not be happening.  The professor should step in front of the class and get the kind of respect that Denzel received in Malcom X or Mr. Clark in Lean on Me when he came out from jail and quieted his students.  She should step out and silence should fall over the room without a word being spoken! And what's so important that everyone has to start talking before class is finished? Yes, everyone probably has whispered here and there during class, but the blatant disrespect of several people talking, slamming things around, and moving while a professor is up talking is immature, disrespectful, and just plain ignorant.

I swear if I had children and they acted this way, I would send them outside for a switch, but maybe that's just me!