Long gone are the days when the women of Connecticut College would gather on the Tempel Green to sing songs in celebration of the new full moon. We have likewise forgone the early protocol of dorm life, complete with maids, butlers and house monitors to supervise social visits in the parlor, and there seems to be little relevance for classes in secretarial studies or archery for the modern Connecticut College student. Each generation of students determines which customs are worth preserving and which are abandoned, deemed too antiquated for our modern lives. Is classroom etiquette, and more broadly, the reverence of the classroom as a sacred, formal space for learning becoming a relic of the past at Conn?
Some would say that our behavior in class is informal at best, disrespectful at worst. We arrive ten minutes late and we pack up our things five minutes early. We slump down in our seats, we pop our gum, we text under the table, and we rarely participate. When we do take part, we lazily introduce our arguments: “Just going off of what she said,” or, “Um yeah, about her point.” In our speech, dress and attitude in the classroom, something seems to have markedly changed from a previous, more ceremonial attitude towards academia.
Has it always been like this? Is part of being in your late teens or early 20s letting go of expectations of past generations and creating your own standards? Are we justified in allowing the formalities of the “old classroom” slip out of reach and into obscurity? Some students react positively to what is perceived as a shift away, particularly with language, from reserve and stiffness in the classroom.
“It makes me very uncomfortable when it’s super formal in the classroom,” said Azul Tellez ’15, adding that lack of formality has not detracted from the quality of conversation. Of the difference between more formal approaches to discussion and the more colloquial class discussions we partake in now, she mused, “I think the level of intellect is probably the same, or better even, so it’s fine.” She does, however observe a culture of informality that sometimes affects her own behavior in class: “There are classes where if I don’t talk informally, I feel self-conscious about it because everyone is being so informal—that actually happens a lot…I make myself sound more informal than I would otherwise.”
There is also a justified reluctance to compare the “old classroom” to the way we behave in class now. Perhaps it is part of our collective historical imagination to assume that Connecticut College students of the past spoke to each other in very prescribed academic language. Anna Curtis-Heald ’15 reflected on this. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced proper etiquette, or ‘the old way’, so it’s hard to compare.”
Other students expressed a desire for us to live up to our own intellectual capacity in the classroom by approaching discussion with more thoughtfulness and more formulated, articulate points. “I think most of the time people see [class] as just getting through it, just getting by. In a way, it is the least important thing in your day. You don’t prepare to go to class, or perform, and you should. It’s the reason we’re here, and we have to talk, and I feel like no one treats it like a performance,” said Peter Herron ’14.
It must also be considered that a shift away from old expectations about language is inevitable and even positive. As we are bombarded by texts, e-mails, memes, journalism which favors the “15 things that you should know about Syria” style, rather than a formal presentation of an argument, perhaps we have no choice but to mimic the words we hear around us every day. As Nels Christensen ‘14 rather formally suggested, “The expansion of our modes of expression has mandated a change in syntax. Our very language is changing so that the formalities of the past no longer exist.”
Another thing to consider is the idea that requiring formal academic language in the classroom is a form of elitism that has been justifiably discarded as we attempt to move towards a more democratic learning and teaching model. As Spencer Francus ’14 astutely suggested of more traditional pedagogical models and the language that accompanies them, “I feel they work if you’re privileged to be fluent in them, but it’s not the only way of learning and it’s definitely not the only way to extract meaningful information from kids.”
When unofficially polled about formality in the classroom, a common sentiment expressed by students was the idea that we currently exist in a sort of indeterminate state regarding language. We might feel, with some guilt, that we should be more formal than we are, yet we continue to use idiomatic language. “Something that I’ve noticed people do a lot is, before they talk they say, ‘I’m sorry this is really not formulated or thought out…’ but then they say it anyway. It’s as if we’re sort of in this limbo stage where people seem to think they should be more formal than they are but they aren’t” said Tellez. “I don’t know if that’s because we haven’t been taught how to be formal or if it’s because we haven’t been taught to trust ourselves,” said Curtis-Heald of the tendency to begin arguments in class with apologies such or qualifications. Are we masking our lack of confidence with casual attitudes towards classroom and discussion etiquette?
Amidst perhaps overly flippant attitudes towards academics, there is also pompousness that students seem eager to steer clear of. You might find yourself sitting beside one person who is shoe-shopping online and alternately texting his friend at the speed of light while on your other side is a student with posture so rigid you start to wonder if her clothing is actually stapled to the chair and who highlighted the text so zealously that you avoid looking over at their paper lest you be blinded by neon yellow. For many, the question is: where should I fall on the academic spectrum?
For some students, this isn’t a huge issue. As with anything, moderation is key. We shouldn’t approach the classroom as though we are in a session of British Parliament, but we shouldn’t speak to each other as though we’re in a bar either. As Curtis-Heald put it, “I think the best combination is where there’s a lot of respect for the professor but you can talk to [him] like a normal person.” For Francus, the key to cultivating the best discussion and classroom environment is fairly simple. “If you have an open mind and you lend discretion to people and try to understand what they mean, then you’re going to have the most fluid classroom experience and get the most out of it. You never want to close yourself off to perspectives because then you’re just deceiving yourself.”
Does it matter how students dress in class, as long as they’re present and engaged, how students speak in class, as long as they’re saying something meaningful? As young people we often find ourselves noting with detachment the ways in which this campus and the world are changing. We forget that, in something so passive as being casual in our language and behavior in class, we are actively participating in changing the classroom environment for future generations of college students. So now, what do we allow to be forgotten, and what do we hold on to? •
