Salem Off the Record: Professors Are People Too

Today something interesting happened to me in one of my classes; the teacher walked out of the room in frustration. For their sake lets just call them "Norman," because I do not mean to make any defamatory comments, rather relate my reasoning to the situation.

Norman usually does get rather "emotional" during class, but that is just from his passion on the subject. Sometimes he can be intimidating, but I have never found it that intrusive to the learning process. At times, he just seems to want more from us (the students) than we are willing to give. Most of the time I feel this is out of uncertainty on the subject matter. Norman knows more than we do, obviously, and at times he wishes we had a better grasp of some knowledge we have never learned.

In the past Norman has said how he is "not happy with the energy in the classroom." Since I feel that we don’t know what to say often, it is not so much an “energy” that is lacking, but knowledge. Often I will not speak if I don’t know what I am saying is right. I will try to ask questions, when I know what I am asking. This class has been lacking in just basic participation, though, I think only group dynamics can change this. How to change the dynamics I am not certain of. Maybe forcing students to participate is the best way? The comfort level just needs to be reached. I feel getting to this level can just be how things fall together sometimes. Today actually went pretty good I thought. There was a decent amount of participation and involvement in discussions, until the end of class took a turn for the worst.

With a little more than five minutes left Norman said, "I just can't do this," in an exhausted tone. Soon after he explained how it is very frustrating when you are talking to people and they are closing their eyes or nodding off. "I don't think I am boring," Norman said with exclamation. Before Norman left after his heart felt expression of displeasure he said if you don't want to come to class then just don't show up.

The whole class was very baffled. I know I was not nodding off. The facial expressions across the room seemed very convicting, as they tried to pick out the offenders. I think that is the one class I will never “nod off”, because I enjoy it greatly. I didn't see anyone nodding off, but someone probably was. For the most part, I just focus my attention on the professor, unless someone is giving their input to class discussion.

This just seems to be an element of teaching. There is going to be some people who will not pay attention. Without talking to them, you don’t really know the reasoning. Sometimes, the teacher is boring (not in this case), but other times the student is just tired. After going through a day with no sleep I can attest to that fact. All the coffee in the world doesn’t always help. At times, I feel that the students “nodding off” might not be their fault. Although, their fault depends on how you look at it I guess.

I am not sure if there is a solution to this complex problem. A professor does deserve attention from their students. An interaction of the students I don’t think is a guaranteed thing, but rather a useful addition to the learning experience. Not having student participation does limit the education process in general, but it is up to the students to participate. If you are not going to be able to stay awake and active during a class maybe you should not go. The attendance policy could nail you in the end though. Students just have to try as hard as they can to keep themselves in a healthy state of mind.

All the students need to remember is that the professor will feel the same way you would when some is ignoring you. All the professors need to remember is students are not always ignoring you on purpose.

"Salem Off the Record" is a sub-division of Salem's Sanity dealing with topics that would not normally be discussed in the regular column and are written in a less formal manor. The observations of these non-newsworthy topics are here for your enjoyment and discussion.