Teaching civility: two daring assignments

I remember the day I stopped humming the theme song to the television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." It was midway through the semester at Towson University, and I had just met with a student who was furious that I had asked her to leave class because she had been e-mailing. She couldn't believe I would do such a thing. I was angry that she flouted my no-texting/e-mailing classroom policy and, worse, that she lacked even a whiff of contrition.