World of Warcraft deemed unsafe for students

BoingBoing reports that an FCC commissioner believes that World of Warcraft is a top reason for college students to drop-out. The nice folks at Fark had a lot of fun with that notion:

what_now wrote:
"As someone who's worked for a college for the past 5 years, the leading cause of dropouts is drug/alcohol addiction. However, it's not *quite* that simple.

A lot of students, especially at the "better" schools, have been monitored, chaperoned, bubble wrapped and helicoptered for 18 years. Mommy and Daddy have scheduled their lives with soccer, ballet, karate, french class, tennis camp, SAT prep, volunteerism, cello practice, art school, and horseback riding lessons, all to increase the child's chance of getting into a "good" school by seeming well rounded. Some of these students have never held a job or been punished for misdeeds, because Mommy and Daddy want to be "cool".

When they get to college, no one monitors them. They go farking nuts because they are unable to balance free time. I *have* seen a student who failed all of his classes because of his internet usage. His mommy asked why we didn't "stop him". I laughed at her."

Mr. Coffee Nerves wrote:
Happened to a high school classmate of mine. His parents raised him like a veal, and when he hit college he lost his freaking mind and smoked more weed than I thought humanly possible. Took a year off to follow Phish around and now is "working" for NORML manning information booths at concerts.

If someone tends toward addictive behavior, that someone is going to find a way to return to that behavior, be it WoW, weed, compulsive masturbating or an unquenchable lust for reruns of "Small Wonder."

The last two combined tragically for another friend of mine.

what_now wrote:
The addictive behavior is one thing, but it's the complete and total lack of time management skills that get these kids.

I had a student who once failed an early class because he simply couldn't be bothered to attend. At the beginning of the semester, the professor explained his attendance policy: After three unexcused absences, you go down a letter percent (A to A-) for every missed day. Everyone signed the syllabus.

This kid failed. He missed 10-12 classes. His mother argued with me that the professor should have taken his test grades into account, and realized that her snowflake deserved at least a C. She then switched tactics to complain that no one "reminded" or "warned" Snowflake that his grades were slipping.

So you see, even after the parents are confronted with evidence of their kids problems, they find someone else to blame.

Makh wrote:
Instead of doing their assignments, students go around college killing every animal they see and selling it back to the bookstore. Some how they get kicked out of college for that.