Attendance Policies Arbitrary

I'm sure that everyone has sat down for the first day of class and heard some policy on class attendance. Usually this policy is something along the lines of,

"You are allowed to miss two classes with no penalty, after which your final grade will be reduced for each absence, and if you miss more than four classes throughout the course of the semester you will be dropped."

Now I know that not every class is the same, but this outlines the basic Arts and Sciences' policy on class attendance. We've all heard or read this so many times that we probably really don't pay much attention anymore, but I must admit that this policy is one of the things that i have never understood or agreed with.

Throughout my four year college experience I have been told by many professors in a variety of contexts that I am an adult and that as an adult I am old enough and mature enough to make decisions on my own, study and take notes on my own, do my class work and home work on my own, and that it is my responsibility to ensure that I get the most out of college. It's not the professors' job to make sure I learn, and I absolutely agree with this. However, I am simultaneously told that while I can make all these other decisions I cannot make the decision to come to class or not.

Now I understand the need to come to class in order to learn the material and succeed in the course, and I am not one to skip class a lot. Also, being involved with leadership myself, leading out with several group studies, I understand the frustration and disappointment that can occur for professors if students do not show up. I am not saying that we should all be able to never come to class and pass with flying colors. I simply do not understand why there are such strict policies on attendance in place.

One of the primary reasons that I view this policy as arbitrary and demeaning is that, as students, we are paying a lot of money to attend these classes. That should be reason enough to make us want to attend, but if it is not, and we choose to skip out, isn't that our prerogative? If we pay for the class we should be able to come and go as we please.

Imagine paying to go see a new movie that has come out. You buy your popcorn and soda and go sit down in the theater. Throughout the course of the movie you get up several times. Perhaps you are bored with the movie and are simply getting up to go outside and call a friend or maybe there is some reason. Imagine that you get up and go to the bathroom then a while later you have to take your child to the bathroom. By this time your get popcorn is empty so you get up to refill it and when you come back an attendant stops you and says that you have exceeded the number of time you can leave without penalty, so he takes your popcorn. A little later you get up to refill your soda and this time when you come back the attendant takes your soda. You're confused and upset, but you go sit down. Finally, close to the end of the movie you have to get up again for some other reason, maybe you really have to go to the bathroom or you received a text from a friend that needed to ask you a question right away. This time when you come back the attendant says that you cannot go back in and finish the movie. If you want to know how it ends you will have to pay to watch it again at another time, and there is no way you are getting your money back for the movie. We would all be outraged if this happened because we payed for the movie and should be able to leave and come back with no penalty or expulsion, yet this is exactly what happens in the classroom.

Now I understand that every professor is different and some are more accepting of absences than others, but I have had my fair share of professors who coldly assume that once someone has missed 3 or 4 classes they don't deserve to be there and drop them unquestionably. I have even had a professor who said that if you are more than 5 minutes late you shouldn't even come to class at all because you will be counted as absent, and 4 absence will drop your final grade by at least a full letter. This is ridiculous!

Students do need to attend class in order to succeed, but that success should be left up to them rather than placing arbitrary limitations that restrict a student to having no more than one reason in any given month that requires them to miss a class. Perhaps more emphasis should be placed on the work done that can potentially be made up if necessary than on the arbitrary physical presence in a classroom.