Am I Too "Old School?"

I will admit to being a stickler about timeliness. Some of it undoubtedly comes from my controlling personality. And I like to think some of it comes from being raised to respect others while being responsible and honoring your commitments. Which is why I started today a little pissed off. OK, more than a little...

I was scheduled to teach a class this morning that started at 9 AM. The office we were using is about 30 miles from my house, which accounting for LA traffic is at least an hour drive on a good day, and can be as much as an hour and a half. So I got up at 5 AM and left the house by 6 to make sure I had plenty of time to get there. Gotta leave time for my morning Starbucks stop, which adds about 15 minutes to the process. Traffic was a little heavier than I expected for a Friday, so by the time I parked and got up to the classroom is was 8 AM - two hours after I left the house. That left me plenty of time to get ready for my students.

Speaking of my students, they have their own commute issues. But they have nothing extra to do to get ready, they only need to arrive, sit down and turn on their computers by 9 AM when class is scheduled to start. Apparently this is more complicated a task than it seems, because out of 10 students, only 4 managed to make it on time. That's right...less than 50%.

When I was a proud member of the JMU Marching Royal Dukes in college (yes I am a proud band geek), our director Dr. Rooney had a rule -- 15 minutes early is on time. That meant you were truly ready to go when rehearsal started, not still getting your instrument out of its case, or still warming up. You were ready. Even outside of band, I never would have dreamed of walking into a class late. Or being late to a group meeting. Or being late to ANYTHING!

I don't know how this lack of consideration for time has crept into our society. Is it because cell phones make it so easy to tell people you're running late? Are we stretched too thin for the hours in the day, and being late is simply a fact of life? Is it just an LA thing...traffic gets to be the excuse for everything? Or is it just basic disrespect for others?

Or am I just too much of a time Nazi with unrealistic expectations? Send me a comment and let me know what you think.