8 O'clock Classes

From the Sioux City Journal:

In a longstanding practice, most colleges have classes that begin at 8 a.m., but they frequently have less than stellar attendance. WIT nursing students Rachel O'Keefe of Kingsley, Iowa, and Jeanne Chamberlain of Hinton, Iowa, said in general education courses, it's common for one-fourth to one-third of the students to be missing.

"You always see people walking in late at 8 a.m.'s. You won't see that at 10," O'Keefe said.

...Lillian Lopez, a Morningside College political science professor, said the 8 a.m. classes are among the quickest to fill up, since they conflict the least with other time slots.

"There is a traffic jam at 9 (a.m.) and 3 (p.m.) classes," Lopez explained. "So the 8 a.m. classes are packed."

Kitty Green, a Morningside history professor, has taught 8 a.m. classes for about seven years straight. "I always have 30-plus students in class. A lot of them show up. I have pretty good attendance, I would argue," Green said.

Green said there are a lot of students participating in sports at Morningside, which spurs picking the earliest classes. She said swimmers and other athletes have practices about 6 a.m.

"They are already up, had breakfast and ready to go. There is a constituency on this campus that has no trouble with 8 o'clocks. Now, a lot of other people are not happy with them. Some kids will avoid 8 o'clock classes at all costs."

At my school, 8 o'clocks are generally not popular. This creates a scheduling problem for classes because most students want classes between 9:00 and 3:00 and, frankly, most professors want to teach at these times as well.  The scheduling problem could be alleviated by charging lower rates for 8 o'clock classes and/or by giving professors bonuses for teaching early classes.

I have voluntarily taught 8 AM sections for the last several years and I used to volunteer to teach before 8:00 AM in "labs" at Mizzou when I was a grad student.  Given the parameters in which I work, I prefer to teach 8 AM's because that gives me a deadline to meet each morning I teach.  Teaching the 8:00 AM sections gets me out of bed and to the campus.  In addition, if I have to teach late in the day, my thinking gravitates towards the upcoming lecture and away from other pressing projects. 

In addition, although teaching can be physically draining at times, it does sharpen my mind, which leads me to be more productive later in the day.  But that's just me.