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Comment by IncreasePosts | Hacker News Reader

In an astrophysics class I had in college , the professor called on a student to solve a problem, he got it wrong, and the professor said "if you would come to my office hours you would know how to solve this" - the students response was something along the lines of "sorry, my parents are crackheads so I need to work two jobs to pay for school"

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Plot twist - the student's dad was the professor.

I think once they start having homework in kindergarten "doing all the class work during class" is a goal that won't be reached.

With all empathy that sucks and is not fair - but should office hours be removed because one student could not attend?

Many of the professors I have worked with that I respect have different methods for helping these students- for example sending them an email after class, offering explicit direct help & advice. Or connecting them with a better job, or a research position.

No, office hours shouldn't be removed. Perhaps professors should just not reward people who come to office hours beyond the extra instruction that is given. Eg no special knowledge communicated solely in office hours("this question is going to be on the test next week"), and no special treatment ("this student got the wrong answer but I know from office hours they're trying really hard so I'll give them some extra points")

Fully agree, a hint should be at most about which subjects to focus on - and ideally that’s something they said in class too.

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