RIGHT BACK AT YA', GREG! (SMILE)

Greg Goelzhauser attempts to explain why students don't remember what you think they should. In short, it's because you expect too much. Greg's claims apply to law school in particular, but there's no reason why they should hold only there:

[P]eople tend to unjustifiably attribute the level of knowledge they possess to others. . . .a specialized knowledge in a particular area would only serve to worsen this baseline error. . . .In law school, the professor is often an expert in the field being taught. Moreover, what is often being taught in the classroom are the basics of any given subject. Since these basics are so obvious to the professor, once they are taught the professor might unknowingly attribute his or her baseline to the students.

Let me suggest another explanation that's more simple but more gratifying for me, at least, in a sense. Because it's hard to learn stuff, students don't always do it when they should. They probably also estimate that the risk of being called on in class is low enough in any given class to justify drinking a beer or going to the gym (or studying something else) instead of trying to figure out whatever it was that you tried to tell them about. In addition -- and perversely -- asking for clarification is often assumed by students to be a sign of inability rather than a sign of curiousity or effort, and (sadly) it's probably not always the case that clarification questions are welcomed, explicitly, in the classroom. In graduate school I remember having the distinct impression that there was a certain baseline knowledge that was required from me that I didn't happen to possess already, so silence was a safe option -- I could always portray my ignorance as a temporary phenomenon on those days on which I did happen to lose the professorial selection game. . .

So, I know the tricks already. Get back to your lecture notes, folks!

Especially if you're in my classes.

I love to call on people.

And sometimes I'll make you write out answers to questions I think you should have already thought about.

THEN THERE WILL BE NO ESCAPE. [cue evil laugh] HA HA HA HA HA.

MORE: Steven and Jim are on my side on this one. Steven even says:

Teaching at a university is sometime like psyops.