If you build it

One of the enduring Collo complaints is about the actual time spent in class. One way to deal with that is to make the classes better and more worthwhile. That's certainly something I've tried and will continue to try to do, at least in part by shifting the burden to you.

But there are two parts to this equation. The complaint, I think, is that you are required to attend classes that you find not worth your time to attend. In addition to making the classes themselves better, it might also be worth thinking about the attendance requirement. I would like to think that if we offer valuable classes, we don't also need to require attendance. Of course, there is the danger that you won't realize beforehand that a class is valuable and you'll not attend when you would have gotten something out of it.

The price of avoiding that, though, is a lot of folks in class who don't want (and maybe don't need) to be there. Having people there who are there entirely of their own volition tends to make the class better, I think. Apathy and resentment can be contagious and minimizing their presence in the classroom is important. Giving you more choices about the classes you attend was a step in that direction. Better classes would accomplish some of that, too. And maybe that's enough. Or maybe we need to pare down the requirement even more.

The big worry with not requiring attendance is that there will be classes where no one shows up at all, or that we have many classes where very few people show up. That's obviously not ideal. On the other hand, twisting arms to get people in the seats is also not ideal. What would be ideal is for you to come to classes as often as you would if they were required, only you come because you want to and not because you have to. I guess my hope is that if we get the classes right, we won't need the requirement.

All of this would depend upon trust and maybe a little faith, which is definitely not my strong suit. You'd have to trust me that the classes are designed with your wants and needs in mind and I'd have to trust you to recognize that and act on it. Maybe someone can play the role of Terence Mann and convince me that people will come.