BY ERICA GUSTAFSON, OPINION EDITOR
Every year, time seems to make a b-line straight for the first day of classes and seminars. Whether students want to or not, the school year approaches as fast as a plane taking off down the runway. With lectures, quizzes, exams and attendance come the dreaded note of classroom participation.
I’m not saying that students want to sit in a classroom listening to a professor ramble on for hours on end. On some days, that can almost feel like agonizing torture. However, many people hear the word participation, and it immediately causes them a sense of panic. I happen to be one of these people.
I remember sitting down in a class where we quickly checked over the review from previous courses because the information would pertain to our semester’s work. After reviewing all the information, my professor scanned the room looking at each one of us to see if we had any questions.
After a minute of silence, he asked, “So that’s it? No questions at all; you all know everything there is to know!”
Of course, I don’t know everything there is to know. Even experts in a specific field will not know everything there is to know about their subject. No matter who you are, people learn new things all of the time. That is just how life works.
The point is that just because I’m silent doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about it.
I can’t speak for every single student, but I don’t pick up information right away. If there is a chance that I do, it still takes me a little bit to process it. It can be extremely stressful when professors assume the worst, simply because students don’t have questions the second after the information is presented.
This is not the first time that people looked into the idea that silence does not equal unfocused. It does not equal stupidity. It does not equal a lack of drive or the lack of eagerness to learn.
Mary M. Reda wrote a 2010 article on The Chronicle of Higher Education that addressed What’s the Problem With Quiet Students? Anyone? Anyone?
Reda first addresses how teachers and professors view silence that sits in the classroom. She states that “professors have a whole vocabulary for explaining students’ silence: They’re unprepared, resistant, hostile, less intelligent, ‘absent.’”
There is a chance that some students who continue to stay silent might be distracted, unprepared or unconcerned with the information. However, it’s wrong to assume that every single silent student in a classroom doesn’t care and isn’t paying attention to the lesson.
Participation in the classroom can be a good thing, but not when it is forced by “class requirements” listed on the syllabus or by pressure to speak when you don’t necessarily have anything to say at that point in time.
There is a fine line in this. Looking for questions and comments in the classroom is a great thing, but silence does not mean that those students are stupid or unconcerned. Sometimes it just takes a little time for students to actually process the information before they can dive into questions and concerns they may have.
A favorite quote of mine from Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, says that “The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”
