My first semester in college, in a general chemistry course, a professor eventually was tired of seeing all the kids on laptops, almost all of them assuredly pl

My first semester in college, in a general chemistry course, a professor eventually was tired of seeing all the kids on laptops, almost all of them assuredly playing solitaire, etc. So he told the entire class to stand up and turn around, and took every computer and pulled out the battery. Now, let me be clear: this guy was a great educator. I would show up an hour early every class and talk nonsense about chemistry, science, sometimes news-of-the-world. And he was literally the last full time Chemistry professor at the school, so he was invaluable as well -- if he left then they would have to scrap the chemistry major. After this event, I took a considerable amount of effort to make sure the event wouldn't be replicated, including a multipage report on failings and missed opportunities to the head of math and sciences. He was fired one semester later, the chemistry program shut down. I have no regrets. I honestly cannot imagine I was even the only one in the class to do anything. This is all by means of saying: be careful about your use of power. In the end, being right or wrong on that one issue is meaningless if your compulsion to exercise control over others is too rough or invasive.