How to Deal
Reflections on irrelevant comments in class
By Sydney Scott
My freshman year was a bit shocking. I came from a very nurturing private school — the kind that wants you to be “whatever you want to be.” The kind that thinks every student is a unique and above-average individual who will go on to do great things. The kind that weaved subliminal messages like “You’re amazing!” into its curriculum. Okay, well maybe there were no subliminal messages, but you get the idea.
As far as I knew, all my comments, questions, and concerns were as unique, wonderful, and special as I was. I was still in this mindset during my first micro-economics recitation. I sat in the front of the class off to the right (because front and center would be sucking-up) and scribbled down everything the TA said. She began going over the homework, and she asked a question about something or other. I promptly pointed out something minor about the unrealistic set-up of the problem. Apparently, it was irrelevant. I know it was irrelevant because her response was, “No, that’s stupid. It doesn’t matter.” I was quiet for the rest of class, and I never went back to that recitation section after that.
Now part of the reason this response was probably so harsh was the language barrier. (My teaching assistant was from Taiwan, I believe.) But just because other professors can soften the language doesn’t mean that they don’t share the same thoughts occasionally. Officious students with irrelevant questions or comments are plain irritating. I am personally convinced that my TA just said what professors often think.
Let’s face it. Sometimes, students need to be informed they are not all that special. Their comments are not always wonderful. My TA took her role of informing students about their unhelpful comments to the extreme. Everyone, though, has been in a class where the professor allows a student to pontificate about a tangent, about something unrelated, or about his or her own brilliance. It’s infuriating.
My point is a question really. What is the right approach to the problem of the student who wastes class time? Too “informative” or harsh a teacher is humiliating. Too lax a teacher is frustrating to everyone else.
First, the professor needs to decide just how unhelpful the student’s input is. If the student’s input is useful, then the professor or TA is just going to have to internalize frustration concerning exactly how “stupid” the question is. In other words, brilliant professor, suck it up. It’s tough to remember, but most of the students are actually just beginning to learn the subject. On top of being novices, they may not be as facile learners. We can’t all be brilliant.
But some questions, comments, and concerns are clearly a waste of time. If I am sitting in a 200-person lecture, I really do not care that you already know the physics of meta-physio-economical whatever. Really. It can go the other way too, but the opposite phenomenon occurs less often (at least at Penn). Sometimes students are very behind on the material, and asking questions that they would probably already know the answers to if they were up on the reading, or, my favorite, not scrolling on facebook/digg/textsfromlastnight when the professor explained it the first time.
Either way, the professor is faced with a problem, or more specifically a student who has not learned when his or her special and unique thoughts might be best kept inside. They are simply, in one way or another, not useful.
The professor has to respond to the student, even if that response is a lack thereof. In responding, or ignoring, he is inevitably going to make some sort of statement. As much as he may desire to be neutral, it really just isn’t possible.
Given that a professor cannot react neutrally to the obnoxious student in the front of lecture, he should deter these questions and future questions like them.
Now some professors are very, very nice. They do not want to discourage questions and comments. They politely listen to a student, rarely if ever cutting the student off (although the student may often cut the professor off, ironically). They try to cultivate curiosity and encourage exploration. Ultimately, though, they should either go teach at my old high school or grow a more iron-like fist.
Think about it. As much as we want to encourage curiosity, letting students frequently pontificate about their own brilliance, or letting them ask questions that have clearly been covered already, merely inhibits this growth of intellectual vivacity. Most of the other students can be seen giving each other looks of positive irritation, shaking their heads, and pulling out their crackberrys to pass the time. Allowing these questions is actually detrimental to the goal.
Obviously, more deterrence of time-wasting does not imply the professor should call students stupid. There is no need to publicly humiliate the student. Usually, subtlety works. Just cue the student that his or her question might be inappropriate for the venue. Perhaps mention that you will answer that question after class (but do not then continue to listen to it/address it in class), or maybe you can refrain from calling on a particularly unproductive student very often. It is only in the rarest of cases that these types of nudges, when applied consistently, do not work.
Of course, sometimes they won’t. There will inevitably be a student who just doesn’t get it. These are the most interesting of cases, besides all the psychological questions they trigger. (Did the girl in the front have a rough childhood? A chemical imbalance? A particularly scarring incident with a clown?) Still, the answer is along the same lines. If you want to foster intellectual curiosity, you must sacrifice answering the questions of one person so that you may engage the interest of many. Similarly, you probably still should not go for public humiliation. It is really never necessary. In fact, although some professors might get a little power orgasm from it, it is plain cruel usually. If it has reached the point where there seems to be no alternatives—the student has ignored the polite nudges, pushes and shoves—then it is probably best just to talk to the student. A few words about how irrelevant questions (or only tenuously relevant questions) often infringe on the productivity of the class is probably all the student needs. And let’s face it, getting a talk like that is embarrassing enough anyways.
Everyone asks an impertinent question once in a while. All these questions cannot, and should not, be encouraged as positively wonderful, unique, and individual. Doing this undermines the goal of creating an intellectually intriguing atmosphere. Yet as much as some professors may admire the Puritan-style enforcement method of outright public humiliation, this is obviously not the correct approach either. Polite, slight, but powerful nudges should be employed. This is not only the best method, but the only appropriate method to creating the type of class environment for which we all strive.