College instructors adopt course policies that force students to focus on their coursework: pop quizzes, classroom attendance requirements, cold calling, graded problem sets,1 deadlines,2 classroom Wi-Fi blocking, and classroom laptop bans.34 In my experience, most students don't welcome these paternalistic restrictions. The unpopularity of such teaching policies is implicitly revealed by the way that colleges market themselves: public relations campaigns don't mention their paternalistic policies. Nomarketing materials would boast: "Choose our University because we have classrooms enabled with Wi-Fi blocking." Colleges are more likely to discuss national rankings, famous graduates, student endorsements, recreation centers, climbing walls, saunas, juice bars, golf simulators, driving ranges, ropes courses, water parks, and lazy rivers.5 Even colleges that market their academic strength talk about research prowess and Nobel Laureates instead of explaining how effort and focus is coaxed from students.
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