The Editor's Soapbox

It starts with a trickle in the back of the huge lecture hall.

Someone is talking to their friend, perhaps trying to get a grasp on the material at hand, or, if it’s Monday morning, recounting the events of the weekend. It really isn’t that bad right now — at the volume level of a quiet whisper, perhaps only the people a row or two away are slightly distracted.

Then, however, another group sees that others have taken free license in disturbing the peace, and begin to chatter among themselves, leaning across the person in the seat next to them to relate something of the utmost importance to the person on the other side.

Maybe it stops there — annoying and disturbing the concentration of a good number of people in a radius of a couple rows of seats. But maybe it gets worse.

Soon enough, the whole friggin’ lecture hall is filled with the sounds of 5 percent of the people chatting to each other, making it nearly impossible to hear the instructor, who, out of respect — respect! — for the maturity and age of his students, refuses to shush them like the kindergartners their behavior is apt for.

The habit of a number of students holding conversations during lecture is deplorable. I realize that my stance may seem rather extreme; I find nothing short of absolute silence as acceptable behavior during instruction, but I am going to justify why.

The first and most important reason is respect for the professor. Unfortunately, it seems that a great many students at UCSD find this motive marginally significant in any decision not to talk because they nullify this reason with, “”Well, he’s getting paid/It’s his job/He’s supposed to teach us, therefore, we have free license to act in what way we choose. It’s not volunteer work, after all.””

I see no logical connection between the fact that the instructor is paid and the respect students should have for him. These people — these human beings — have taken the time to prepare lesson plans and to study elementary material from years back just so they can impart the knowledge to their students. By showing up to class, the students have given their unspoken agreement to be taught. Regardless of how much the professor is paid to perform his duty, the least students could do is have the respect to allow the professor to finish the job he started for their sake.

Perhaps it is readily apparent when an instructor has not fulfilled his end of the bargain and not prepared adequate instruction. But in my four quarters here at UCSD, I have not attended one lecture where this has been the case.

Second, the students around you who are not talking and are actually paying attention did not come to class to hear the students around them converse about the material at hand or their plans for the weekend. They came to hear the professor.

It takes a fundamental lack of respect for other students to carry on a conversation in the middle of lecture — an act of utter selfishness and arrogance that cannot be justified in any way. Many people use the excuse that everyone does it. This is where they are wrong.

The proper functioning of a society can break down quickly if even 2 percent or 3 percent of the populace decides to flout the law. Likewise, talkers in a lecture hall cause a disproportionate amount of disturbance because the acoustics of the room allow the slightest whisper to carry from one end of the lecture hall to the other.

The mentality of group culpability, however, brings me to my third point. The final reason people should keep quiet during lecture is because the willingness of one party to talk lends a sense of safety to others in the lecture hall who wish to start their own conversations. When students start talking, they inspire any like-minded individuals around them to do so as well. So not only do chatters’ voices multiply acoustically, they multiply in sheer numbers as well.

I do not know what it is about my electrical engineering classes that make the students much more apt to chat there than in any other class. I guess it’s the perception that the material the professor is covering is already in the textbook, unlike a political science class where lectures are the primary source for material.

The view that yapping is justified because the material is available elsewhere is absurd and selfish. While some people learn just fine from studying a textbook or glancing up every few seconds at the professor to recap material they already know, many of those attend lecture because they not only want but also need to hear the professor speak in order to get any grasp of the material.

This little article probably will not change the mindset of the people who have no compunctions about talking in class already. However, the other 90 percent of the people in the lecture hall, along with the professor, who can sympathize with my position who are usually too timid to shush talkers can stand up against those who believe it is their right to converse through lecture.

Ironically enough, the biggest fear I have impeding me from grabbing the attention of those talking and shushing them is a fear of offending the guilty parties. I imagine it is the same for other students in the classroom.

I would like nothing better than for any professor who reads this to understand the plight of the students who do not converse, and summarily point to and kick out offenders to silence in the lecture hall. But that would be trespassing on the freedom of students to speak about their weekend in lecture, wouldn’t it?

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