Class participation. It’s a phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of many students. As syllabus week goes on, it’s a phrase that we are hearing over and over and over again. As someone who (usually) pays attention in class but doesn’t necessarily like to speak up in front of people I don’t know, the participation policies in place do not sit well with me.
There is not one type of human, there is not one type of personality, there is not one type of learning style. So why should there be only one type of participation? It is giving a good size of the student population a strong disadvantage. Why should people’s grades be dependent on how much they talk in class? If they’re paying attention, taking notes, and learning, their grade shouldn’t be lower than those who raise their hand very often to speak.
This shows a deeper rift in our society as well, the fact that outgoing or extroverted people oftentimes exceed easier than those that are few of words. This way of life is leaving behind a whole group of the population because of a trait or way of being that they were born with. I wonder if there is another way to gauge participation in a broader sense of this long held idea of class participation.
It reminds me of the way that math is being taught these days in elementary and middle schools. Teachers will give the math lesson, and the process they are teaching in order to find the right answer is horribly complicated, and doesn’t really make rational sense. Parents looking at it are left stumped. The children are left stumped. Yet, they are only allowed to solve the problem in this one specific way, otherwise points are taken off their assignment. The idea behind it is a good one, to teach children critical thinking skills. But in reality, it is messier than it is educational. In the end, it winds up causing stress and headaches and does not cause new thinking habits. Doing that task becomes a chore, just like raising your hand in class and the original intent is cloudy at best and is vastly under-reached at worst.
To those out there who do not like speaking out in a classroom setting, I’m right there with you. But I encourage you to try to do it anyways, even if it’s just once every two weeks. Talk to your teacher about it and see what they say. Tackle this issue, or bring attention to it with your teacher. Start a change, whether that be in yourself or in the way participation is counted.
In a time of our lives where every day is already very stressful and where students already have a laundry list of things that need doing, we should try to find a better way to deal with in-class interactions.
