In all my years at Saint Anselm College, I think I’ve finally established the type of student St. A’s would like. Thoughtful, intelligent, and insightful, the ideal Anselmian would do all assigned readings, ask important questions, and stimulate discussion. Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that not all students fall into this ideal, rather many fall on either side of this student scale. After numerous hours of classroom experience, I feel that I finally have I have created an accurate grouping of Saint Anselm students.
On the far right of this scale are the students that appear to be less noticed in the classroom. Perhaps that’s because they are very rarely in class. Despite the attendance policy at St. As, there are still those students who do not feel the need to go to class, so they simply don’t.
These students can be most commonly found in Humanities lectures or large science classes, but on occasion, you will have a fellow classmate in your Classics or English class that seemed to just appear out of nowhere come finals time. These students make me wonder how they manage to pass the class, or why they are even wasting their money to be here, but they do provide entertainment when I realize just how many more students are in my class than I realized on exam days.
However, just because a student attends class does not mean that they will automatically get a good grade, which is what this next group of students may not yet understand. This grouping of students often sits in the back of the classroom, and spends most of the time catching up on his sleep than he does on taking notes.
Now, I will admit that I have nodded off in class a few times in the past, but I try not to make it a regular habit, unlike these students. A similar variation is the laptop student. While there are students who genuinely need their laptop for note taking, others see it as a way to combat a boring class through Facebook and Pintrest.
The quiet student is closer the St. As ideal. This is another person that many overlook in the classroom, simply because you forget he or she is there. Often found in the middle or back of the room, he or she attends class and just takes notes.
Very rarely will they answer a professor’s question, which is why it is easy to forget them. They do not really interact with the other kids in the class, so they can be overlooked. My advice: befriend these students. They are more often than not good, hardworking students, and would be a good study buddy during tests and exams.
Following the quiet student would be our balanced ideal, and as we move to the left, we come to the more talkative students. Most similar to the quiet student, but on the other side of the scale, is the semi-participator.
Much like the quiet student, they are diligent with their notes, and he or she can be easily overlooked or overshadowed by louder, more attention hungry students. These students raise their hands occasionally to participate in class by answering a straightforward question or to clear up information, but they will not ask or answer more discussion like questions, which would demand a long explanation.
This next group of students can be referred to as “questioners”, and almost everyone on campus has interacted with a student such as this in some capacity. These students love class discussion and participation, and I believe that they see it as an opportunity to make themselves known in the classroom and to gain the professor’s attention.
While class participation is encouraged and an important part of the classroom at Saint Anselm’s, there is a point in which the questions become unnecessary. For example, asking how long a paper should be when the handout was just passed out is a little unnecessary, and asking if the French were confused by German trench building in World War I is off topic and takes away from class discussion. In my experience, these questions seem to annoy their fellow students, and even some professors as the questions become more and more numerous as time passes.
Finally, the extreme left scale of students is very similar to the “questioners”, and we’ll call them the “commenters”. These students are a little pretentious in the classroom, and love classroom discussions as a way to showcase what they know.
These students often like to bring up their accomplishments, such as being members of the Honor’s Program or taking A.P. classes in high school, as if this is integral to their intelligence and authority. These students often hold controversial beliefs, such as a civilian unwilling to participate in wartime resistance movement deserves to be killed, and these beliefs and opinions can lead to out of control discussions that eventually have nothing to do with class.
With the end of the semester and winter break fast approaching, I urge you all to evaluate yourselves as students. What kind of student are you? How can you become a more idyllic St. As student?
To the quiet students: participate more, you’re probably just as intelligent as your fellow classmates. To the questioners and commenters, before you decide to make what I’m sure you believe is a very intelligent point, stop and think about how relevant statement is. Is it necessary for the class to know that you took A.P. History in high school? Or will your support of bombing civilians bring about a fruitful discussion or a shouting match? I think many students can work to improve themselves as students, and truly bring about the types of classrooms and discussions the founding monks desired.
