There are a lot of things about school that interfere with my doing-nothing-of-importance time. I like to read a lot of books —
mostly about things that have a little to do with my studies, or just things I want to learn about. Last year I read three books on electronics so I could build a light out of a potato. I recently donated those books and bought a nice lamp for my desk. Potatoes are better to eat anyway. Last Christmas, I learned how to crochet from a book and my family got scarves — not for Christmas, but they still really liked them.
I also like to ride my bike, spend time
watching cartoons with my son, drink coffee and stare at other people, etc., etc. There are things in school that severely retard these
activities: homework, having to go to class, having to read stuff that is not always interesting, research, you get the point. But when I
decided to get a degree, I knowingly signed myself up for these commitments, and so I swallow them easily enough.
The one thing that I can’t swallow is when they force me to watch a class movie. There is nothing I dislike more than having to watch a movie in class. It’s bad enough trying to take notes on a desk that’s not bigger than a notebook, not to mention trying do that while balancing my much-needed caffeinated beverage and not spilling it. What’s more, I have to do all that in the dark, while watching a movie I could have rented on Netflix or gotten online. It drives me crazy!
I would like to see one of my professors sit in a desk with a chair fixed to the unit — one that doesn’t recline and has no pillows. It drives me nuts. It’s like some form of torture. I can
understand how watching these films may have been worthwhile in 1980, when we didn’t have countless technological resources in the palms of our hands. Maybe the video stores back then only had one copy of the VHS tape and so showing a movie in class would ensure that everyone had an opportunity to watch it. I was also about 60 pounds and four feet tall in 1980, so sitting at a desk the size of an iPod wasn’t too bad. I could even get comfortable — almost.
Now I am older. I am adult enough to take out loans, follow a class schedule, find my classrooms all by myself, buy my books, pay my rent and feed myself. And yet, I still have professors who insist on showing me a movie in class — making me feel like I am not an adult. I mean, seriously, they trust me to research information to write a paper in their class, but they don’t trust me to go rent, download or
borrow the movie on my own?
Here are some suggestions: Stop it immediately. That’s the first suggestion. The second one: Offer a concession stand in class. This gives you an opportunity to supplement your small salaries and us an opportunity to have some popcorn and a soda while we watch the movie. Third, please, for the love of god, get rid of those desks! I am fairly certain we have a much smaller percentage of 45-pound students compared to the other 99.9 percent of us who are at least 100 pounds or more.
If you insist on movie watching in class, then bring in some large recliners on those days, something I can get comfortable in while I sit quietly watching movies. Fourth suggestion; Give us the opportunity to prove our adulthood, our ability to act as responsible college students, and let us watch the movie at home, at a friend’s house, in the shower, whatever — just anywhere else but a classroom, please.
