When I left high school I was relieved that I would be leaving behind the poorly led and under the desk texting dominated high school classroom discussions. I had visions of participating in in-depth, intellectual classroom conversations about important topics. But as it turns out all of the slobbering dunces that attend high school also need somewhere to go after graduation. And it turns out a good percentage of them chose college.
In any given college classroom there will be three types of students. You will have the extremely talkative students who raise their hands every single time the professor proposes a question. You will have the occasional students, who make occasional comments and take occasional notes. Then you will have the students who are asleep. I fall into the “occasional student” spectrum.
My English professor began the class by telling us that we were going to be having a class discussion on a paper we were asked to read regarding the relationship between obesity and fast food. He split the class right down the middle and said that the right side of the room would argue one side of the issue and left would argue the other. That idea makes sense since the purpose of said class discussions isn’t necessarily to come to a correct consensus, but rather to learn how to reason, and to present an argument with logic.
Apparently this concept is just too great for some of my classmates to grasp. One girl was so disturbed that she was on the opposite side of the room from her opinion that about 5 minutes into the discussion she actually started shaking and broke down and sobbed “I just can’t do this! This goes against everything I believe!” Seriously? Everything you believe can be summed up in the fast-food obesity debate? Everything? And whatever that “everything” is you believe in it so much that you would actually break down in class because you were required to take 20 minutes to look at a simple argument through a different angle? Seriously?
Another thing that destroys most classroom discussions is that most students have no idea when and when not to talk. For future clarification let me introduce to current and future college students the official rule* of when it is okay to talk.
“It is okay for you to express your opinions when you have something intelligent to say that has not already been said.”
See! There it is! Now does that sound so hard? I had raised my hand to make a comment at the same time another girl did. The professor called on her first and she made the exact point I was going to make. The professor called on me next and I said “She just said what I was going to say.” He responded “Well we’d love to hear from you.” I pause, confused out of my mind. “Um, I think you just went temporarily deaf for the last seven seconds because I just said that what I wanted to say has already been said.” “Hm, I see.” He says dissapointedly. A hand shoots up on the other side of the room. “I have something to say!” Says the kid who makes about 47 comments a day. Then he proceeds to say exactly the same thing that the girl who went before me said, which is what I was going to say, but didn’t because of the rule. “That’s a very good point.” Says the professor. “And class, let me take just a minute to remind all of you (“all of you” here meaning “Isaac”) that classroom participation is 10% of your grade. Isaac, now do you have anything you would like to add?” (No response because I’m now asleep)
* Also applies to cable news talk show hosts/guests.
This post was origially written October 2010
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