The Lecture
31. Aug, 2007 
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The following (very) short story was inspired by a comment made by Vivien on this blog.
The professor could see a single hand raised in the giant lecture hall as he quickly glanced up from his notes. But the professor continued on with his lecture.
After a few more minutes of giving his lecture, the professor could see the single hand still raised. Again, the professor ignored the student and continued on with his lecture.
The professor again looked up after a few moments, and could now see the student standing with his hand raised. It was obvious to the entire class now that this student had a question.
The professor addressed the student, “Young man, please take a seat and put your hand down.”
“But sir, I have a question about your lecture.”
The professor looked down at his notes and replied matter-of-factly, “The lecture is not a time to take questions and comments. I have office hours for that, so please take your seat.”
“No.” the student said calmly. “I will not take my seat until you have addressed my question.”
The professor took off his glasses and placed them on the podium, “Look, Mr…”
“Andrews.”
“Look, Mr. Andrews. I’m sure your fellow students could care less about your question and would be unlikely to benefit from my answer. So please take your seat and schedule an appointment. Lecture is not a time for conversation.”
The student was insistent, however, and responded, “That doesn’t change the fact that the question should be addressed publicly in class. Furthermore, someone else might have the same question regardless of your assumptions.”
“Mr. Andrews, I don’t care if someone has the same question. If it’s important enough, you both can schedule an appointment. Now take a seat or I’m going to remove you from my classroom.”
The other students in the class started talking amongst themselves, and one student chimed in, “Let him ask his question.”
The professor, disgusted, responded harshly, “Lecture is a time for me to talk and you to listen. Sit down, shut up, take your notes, and leave when I’m finished.”
“But you’re wrong professor.” Mr. Andrews said. “You’re lectures aren’t always accurate, which is why I had my hand raised.”
“You can dispute my points and credibility during office hours. Now is not the time or the place.”
“And office hours are when I can tell you you’re wrong? And if you are, are you going to announce to the class during the next lecture about a disputed point?”
“Of course not.” The professor said, “Because I’m the professor, and you are the student. I’m the one teaching the class, not you. If you don’t like it, drop the course and find another professor who is willing to put up with your nagging questions.”
“I think I will.” Mr. Andrew said gathering his school materials. “And if the rest of you are fed-up with this guy, why not do the same as me?”
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thank you, Ronald. I’m very honored…
The sad thing is that I actually had one ‘professor’ at the university who was very similar to the one in your story. I put him as a professor in quotes because he didn’t deserve that title. He was always memorizing all his lectures, he knew nothing about the subject he was teaching (database), but he did have a photographic memory. So because he had the entire lecture memorized, he wouldn’t let anyone to interrupt him and ask questions. We were supposed to take notes and wait until the lecture is over to ask questions.
So every time I was raising my hand and asking my question, he would go nuts and scream that I’ve interrupted his thoughts flow, ask not to interrupt again, then walking from one corner of the classroom to another, trying to remember where did he stop, remembering and continuing the lecture again, like a robot, until another interruption from me or another classmate. He too was getting even with us later but driving us crazy with the ridiculous assignments and requirements.
Thanks Vivien for the comment. This post is an analogy of a blogger who turns off comments, although not all bloggers who turn off comments can be directly compared to the professor in the story.
I, too, have had a professor like yours who refused to let the students interrupt the lecture.
Thank you for continuing to live up to your name of inspiration.
Aaaah yes. I have been kicked out of a few classes because of similar things, or asking direct questions about a sensitive topic. One time, while a professor was telling me to not ask questions and go to his office, after a while he started asking me questions to see if I knew some material or not and kept pinpointing me out only, and it was a clear revenge-type thing, so I told him something along the lines of “You can ask me questions in your office time, since like you said we don’t want to waste class time.” He didn’t like it, and I got into trouble later.
Interesting points in this story. It is not always easy to drop such courses, but if there is a chance, it can be better. It all comes down to a few things including whether students want to ask questions to learn, whether they are bent on asking questions because of pride or to be right, and whether students go to class to learn or to pass requirements to get a degree.
This shows you one of the many schools of thoughts: classroom is a room to listen, and not to learn. Or, learning is done by listening only. To further add to Vivien’s comment, I know some professors who will keep talking but will keep the raised hands in mind, and when they have finished a train of thought, they will start letting each student, who had raised the hand, ask questions.
Your story reminds me of that movie with Lawrence Fishburne as the Professor, Higher Learning. He does not do the exact thing, but he acts in a similar fashion, in the views of some students, when he acts very cold and rude to students whose tuition is still pending payment by the university. Unless I am forgetting something, I think it is a bit similar. If you have not seen the movie or you remember it better than me and it’s not similar, you can probably ignore this last paragraph.
This is unbelievable: I also had such a professor. Unfortunately, there was no possibility to drop the course, unless giving up studies completely.
One thing that should be asked though is how many bloggers are like the professor by turning off comments? I understand various reasons why some bloggers turn off comments, but there are some who turn off comments who believe readers can provide no value.
True. Many bloggers, specially once they get to a stage where they are earning enough money, turn off comments since they do not need the comments anymore to climb the traffic and monetary ladder.
Cash Quests, by Kumiko, is considered an example of this by several people I know. I wonder what the actual main reason of different bloggers are, when it comes to turning off the comments. Could it be disagreements that bloggers cannot handle, or is it something else?
Bes,
Various reasons. One of them being legal. In Canada, the blogger is responsible for comments made by others. Another can be focus. A blogger may want to focus solely on writing rather than community. Another can be time. A blogger wouldn’t have time to moderate and control comments, so rather than let the spammers reign free, the blogger turns off comments.
Those are just a few reasons I can think of off the top of my head.