The troubling tale of tardiness

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to learn. \nSo she gathered up her most scholarly books, stuffed them in her basket with a sandwich and $2,286 for credit hours and began frolicking toward the enchanted institution of higher wisdom. \nShe wasn't far upon her merry way when a most abominable wolf halted her with demands for peanut butter and jelly.\n"Give me your peanut butter and jelly," he said.\nThe little girl surrendered her sandwich and passed without harm, but then found herself faced with a more serious debacle. It had taken her five minutes to reason with the wolf. Now she would be late to class.\nWhen she arrived at the great hall of teaching, she found the entrance fastened tight.\n"Little prof, little prof, let me in!" she cried. \nBut alas, the professor would not. \n"Those who tarry," said he, "are but inexcusable disruptions to my lecture!"\n"But professor," she pleaded, "I gave $2,286 to the royal bursar!" \nThe bolted door remitted only silence. \n"Professor, the wolf, he -- !"\nBut it was too late. Huffing and puffing would be of no use to the little girl now. As far as the cold hard lock was concerned, her tardiness would be no more punishable had she instead carelessly lingered to smell the flowers along the way. \nThe girl set down her basket and put her ear to the wall. She could sense the knowledge circulating on the other side, but it was simply inaccessible to her. A tear rolled down her sweet little cheek, for attendance was 25 percent of her grade.\nThe moral of this tender tale should be quite obvious. There is no justification in locking a legitimate student out of a classroom. Some professors still do this after their classes begin because they claim stragglers cause a disruption when they enter.\n"Poppycock," the little girl would say. And I would agree.\nThe IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct states that teachers should "strive to protect students from irrelevant and trivial interruptions or diversions." This rule might justify the prohibition of cell phones in a classroom or the use of flash photography. But when a student is just trying to show up for the class they signed up and paid for, it can hardly be considered trivial or irrelevant. The motion of a door opening and closing can't be nearly as disturbing to an education as missing an entire lecture. \nThere are plenty of lame excuses for being late. But there are legitimate ones as well. Sometimes schedules force a student to traverse the entire length of the campus in only 15 minutes. Occasionally classes run beyond their allotted times. In these cases, a student can make a concerted effort to get to class and still be a few minutes tardy. Why deny them the remaining 46 minutes?\nStudents should certainly be encouraged to arrive at class on time, but there are less drastic ways to foster punctuality. Threaten attendance points if a student is perpetually late. Have students who get to class first sit toward the middle, so later arrivals won't have to climb over them.\nTardiness ought not be indiscriminately punished. Most of us are just trying to learn. So let us in, let us participate, and we can all live happily ever after.