Build it and they will come
Beat the boring prof blues
ARI HANSON
With the first long semester of courses already gone by faster than a truck driver on amphetamines, and another one currently in full swing, I’m left with a lot of memories — good and bad, important and trivial, and aweinspiring and angering. When I stop for a second and think about where all those memories came from, an interesting revelation rises to the surface. While some courses may have had more interesting and easier material than others (or maybe just funnier classmates), a lot of whether the taste left in my mouth was pleasantly minty or disgustingly sour has to do with the style of the professor. With the exception of the odd math or science course (a.k.a. all of them — all right, I said it, shoot me now Science Students’ Association), I guess it’s pretty obvious that simply lecturing straight from a textbook probably isn’t such a great idea when it comes to encouraging a thought-provoking, fun environment in the classroom. But apparently, I guessed wrong. From my experience, numerous professors here at the U of M are still using presentation styles so boring and dry it makes you thankful for our fine institution’s paper-thin walls; at least they give us something to periodically thump our numbed foreheads against to regain feeling without causing too much brain damage.
But why? Is what seems like common sense to any garden-variety university student really that hard to comprehend for a tenured professor with a fancy doctorate in something I know I’ll never understand or even be able to pronounce? Does nobody else find it ironic when a management professor’s lecture on public speaking skills has the class utterly and completely lost in a haze of drowsy monotony within 10 minutes? Or is it just that the rest of us are all out to lunch — did the commies have it right after all? Have aliens begun their slow but steady infiltration into our ranks, starting with disgruntled profs since they’re already emotionally dead anyway? Don’t look at me; I sure as hell don’t know. To be honest, I doubt anyone really knows (though I bet the studies written by some of those profs with PhDs probably claim that they do).
However, the more important question is, how can the boring lectures be overcome? The reason I’ve written anything at all today is that, after a year and a half of university classes (some boring, some not), I’ve finally realized that it all comes down to one simple idea — relevance. Let’s face it; the material in some courses just won’t be relevant to students a year or three down the line. If a prof can realize this about his or her course and modify their material to cover what will be relevant in the future, then maybe students will lose their boredom and gain some interest. Some of my best class-lecture experiences have been in courses where the prof rarely (if ever) referred to the textbook. Instead, they spent most of their time talking about relevant, real-life situations, which provoked more thought and discussion in a single class than lots of other courses do in their entirety. Sure it involved more work (as I had to learn the textbook material myself rather than having it regurgitated to me like a baby owl in the classroom), but it was worth it.
For anyone who thinks that lectures such as these are equally boring and pointless since the profs usually don’t test on discussions, let me tell you — the juice is definitely worth the squeeze. Once professors get past the urge to lecture straight out of an already convoluted textbook, they can usually offer a huge wealth of knowledge and interesting anecdotes, usually leaving you with a unique combination of real-life experiences to apply to your future career (and the added bonus of some hilarious stories to tell at the awkward social gatherings you’ll most likely be forced to attend because of your career).
Like another renowned management prof said in a class on motivation just last week, “the more sugar you put in the cake, the better the chance you’ll get diabetes.” So, professors, if you’re wondering why your class is always half-empty (or worse yet, filled with mindless stares so distant they could be half a world away), think about adding some practicality and personal experience to your lectures. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. As the timeless quote goes, “build it and they will come.”
