by Lee Shainen

A WHILE AGO, a student of mine wrote a paper inspired by a poster that said, "Education is the one thing people are willing to pay for and not receive." When she read that line in class, the other students snorted a short laugh of self-recognition. It started me thinking of all the students who did not get what they paid for in my classes over the years. I consistently get good evaluations from my students, but the ones who disappear usually do so without saying a word. It is easy for me to assume that it was any of a hundred things, other than me, that kept them from completing what they started, what they paid for.

Of course they are adults, or at least must be treated as such, so I never believed it was my job to track down every student who stopped attending class. But I must admit, after hearing this one student's paper, I became more curious. So, I started to make phone calls and leave messages. Initially, I could find only about a dozen students who had dropped out, and their reasons were mostly typical and expected. But I also picked up on a minor theme about quirky behavior from instructors, which prompted me to query my classes, and students from a nearby university, about the quality of instruction they were receiving.

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