“Don’t Pack Your Things Up Just Yet!”

So, how much has the classroom changed since we’ve all been in school? What are we now? Juniors and Seniors roughly? So we’ve been in the schoolgame for a hot minute. And when I say hot minute, I mean coming up on the better half of two decades. We’ve all been witnesses to all kinds of classroom behaviors, experiences, and episodes. Some of them funnier and more enjoyable than others, and some days we just wish we were still in our ridiculously warm and cozy beds and far away from the classroom as possible. But through all of the school daze, there are some specific instances that I just have to tell you about that I’ve noticed. So let’s go to school.

The hand raise. You gotta wonder the first time we learned to raise our hands to ask a question. I sure as hell don’t remember how that all went down, but I do know that it has evolved like crazy since our elementary years. Remember those days when we would raise our hands out of pure eagerness and excitement? And I’m not talking about those hand raises that are a show of hands how many people do this, or have done that, or have this or that. I’m talking about when a teacher would ask an educational question and whoever DIDN’T raise their hand was just being a snickerpuss or sour and was having a bad day. Even if we didn’t know the answer we would still guess because we wanted to impress our friends, teachers, girls and boys we had crushes on, and even ourselves. But then something happened. The Hand Raise evolved into the Few Finger raise, then the One Finger Raise. What came along with this evolution? Rather, what was lost? The enthusiasm, excitement, and eagerness. Now, we just don’t care. When a teacher asks a question, more than likely, no one’s going to answer. For some reason, the older the student, less and less enthusiasm is shown. Maybe it’s because we’ve realized that we’re almost done with this school stuff and we just don’t care anymore. Or maybe some of us are just too cool for school. But how fun would it be if we all got back that enthusiasm for a day, or week? I think I’ll start raising my hand again.

Okay okay, someone PLEASE help me out with this one. You’re in class, and the teacher is giving their classic lecture and so forth. The teacher might ask a question that elicits a response or a student may have a comment about a specific something so naturally the student signals for the teacher to stop talking so they can have the floor, by hand raise, finger raise, whatever. The teacher calls on the student, and as soon as the student starts talking, everyone and their mom looks at them like they’re the President of the United States. If the student talking is in the back row, everyone in the front row shifts their heads all at the same time like robots and intently stares at the speaker as if they’re waiting for them to…….explode, or something. I don’t know what’s more weird: watching everyone turn their heads at the same time like androids to listen to the speaker (because for some reason we have to look AT them to listen to them) or eating a candlewax, sardine, and toe jam sandwich. Yeah. It’s that weird. So, when someone’s talking in class, look at them for a minute if you must, but go back to picking your nose, or daydreaming about popsicles. It’s just weird.

Oh Sleep. How wonderful is this phenomenon that our body does every day? Sleep feelssooo good. Especially when you’re so tired that your eyelids feel like golf balls, and you just can’t keep them open anymore. Or how about on those cold cold winter school days and you have that deadly 8 a.m., but wake up to a winter wonderland, so you joyfully put your body back in your bed and cozy up under your warm covers knowing that classes and activity for the day has been canceled. But, you know what sucks? When you’re in CLASS and all of these emotions overcome you. It’s such a bad feeling. Because you know you’re falling asleep, that chick sitting next to you knows you’re struggling to stay awake, and your teacher definitely knows your nodding that head of yours up and down like a pendulum desperately trying to stay awake. I hate it because you feel so helpless. You keep trying and trying to keep your eyes open, but it’s no use. If anything, the teacher lecturing is what’s helping you sleep easier. It goes: bedtime stories to children and lectures to students. I have yet to figure out a remedy to cure this unfortunate situation, but if anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Last thing real quick. A little something that I know irritates some teachers, and would probably irk me if I was one. Minutes left in class, and what do we students do? Ruffle schuffle zipzip ruffle scuffle schuffel. We pack up our things like we’re going on vacation to Djibouti. What is with that?! The few seconds it takes you to pack up your things while the teacher is talking will not be missed if you packed up after they dismiss class. I know I know….sometimes teachers lose track of time and need the ruffling sounds of students packing up to remind them when it’s time to go. But for the teachers that say, “don’t pack up before class is over” I usually listen to them. They probably know what time it is, and they don’t need the loud, interrupting noises of our things to bother them. Let’s listen to ‘em everyone once in a while.

The classroom is an interesting place. So much goes down in those 4 walls of learning that it’ll actually all be over with before we know it. Of all the different rooms, students, teachers, and things learned, I can say that I will definitely miss school when it’s all said and done with, but if I ever teach anything anywhere, nobody will be packing anything up before I say so.