Alvin – your students are lazy bastards. So are mine. Unless there are severe and explicit repercussions for non-attendance, they will not show up until they absolutely have to.
I take the same stance as you do: come if you'd like, there's stuff to learn; if not, you're only missing out on information you've paid for already. That said, I make 20% of the final grade based on participation and I stress that it is impossible to participate if they are not in class. I also give daily quizzes – both to guide their studies (this is a language class) and to reinforce the importance of attendance. Yet if I announce for some reasons that there won't be a quiz, half of my class is gone. One student completely disappeared during a review week only to pop back in for the final. He barely passed because he "didn't have to be" in class and missed material intended for his benefit. Do I feel bad? No – he's an idiot.This quarter, I decided to treat my students more like adults. I announced on the first day that I would no longer be giving daily quizzes, that I trusted them to come to class without the threat of missing points looming overhead. The next day, three of them skipped - two of whom are repeating this class because they skipped too often the first time through. Am I annoyed? Yes – apparently some college students are still children.
Do I need to "save them from themselves"? Do you? Does anyone? No. If they fail to learn material because they choose not to come to class, that's their own damned fault. You don't have to provide incentive for students to come – if they don't want to, they won't and it's their loss. They'll either fail an exam and start coming back, or they'll cram enough on their own that they'll pass and go on their merry way.
If our students cannot learn because they do not bother to show up, then they are no longer students.
To the crows with the lot of them.
