We are halfway through the semester and less than one week short of spring break, which means that many people on campus are in that very special mental state where adding extra irritants to daily life could spur a mental breakdown. As such, we would like to send a reminder out there to all those students who like to interrupt class incessantly: Sit down, be quiet and listen to what your professor is saying.
The average full-time undergraduate student pays $1,558 per semester before adding the cost of books and other supplies, according to the Cal State Long Beach Web site. While the cost of an education here is a lot more reasonable than, say, Stanford or UCLA, it is still money that most students would not like to see gone to waste. We pay that money in hopes of getting an education and that extra “oomph” needed to get ahead in life.
However, some students do not seem to understand that they are not the only ones who pay to attend class.
We all have had the guy who sits in class and asks endless questions to the point of annoying everyone else and sidetracking the discussion. Who needs to know those pesky physics formulas that will be on the midterm when you can instead spend an hour discussing your classmate’s life experiences, right?
Then, of course, there are also those who decide to ignore the teacher and talk to friends or check their e-mail. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later, the class gets sidetracked when that person realizes there is something they should be doing and spends the next 10 minutes trying to understand what they missed. Of course, this person will have to shout out a series of questions that have already been explained many times by the professor.
To be frank, this kind of conduct in class is unacceptable. It is rude and inconsiderate for someone to throw away other peoples’ money, and it is just plain selfish for one to assume that his or her desire to exclusively talk should negate the needs of 20 other people.
College is a place ripe with opportunities to talk to peers and learn new things, and one of the key lessons to learn is when to speak up and when to listen. It is a lot harder to learn from the people around you if they never get a chance to say what they think.
We at the Daily Forty-Niner suggest that if you feel the overwhelming desire to talk in class you should pay attention for now, get your bachelor’s degree, enroll in and graduate from the master’s program and get a job as a professor. Then, not only will you legitimately be able to talk for an hour and a half, but you will also have people who pay to listen to you talk and who probably won’t curse you every time you leave the room.
If, for some reason, it is just too difficult to do that, may we suggest investing in a soundproof isolation box? Your classmates would probably contribute to the cause.
