Awkward Silences in Class: Why It's a Big Deal

By Cameron Cameron on November 13, 2012

Lately in a few of my classes I’ve been seeing a new trend.  People are just refusing to talk.  At first I thought of these as isolated incidents; but no – my classes have been dead.  I’m talking serious awkward silences on a daily basis.  My poor teachers will ask the class a question about the reading, or an assignment we did, and no one in the class will speak up.  So we are forced to sit there, and stew in the awkwardness until A: the teacher gets fed up, or B: I decide to just blurt something out (whether or not it is germane to the topic at hand.)  Neither of these options are favorable if you ask me; so I just want to know one thing:  why won’t people talk in class?

From flikr, by Earlham College

Sure, there are the obvious reasons: “I didn’t read, I’m shy, I lost my voice, I’m hungover, I’m having a bad day, blah blah blah.”  I get it, there are lots of factors that can go into this; but seriously, doesn’t the silence embarrass you?  Doesn’t the fact that our professor thinks we’re all vapid wastrels make you a little uncomfortable?  Okay, that might be an exaggeration; but I wouldn’t blame my profs for thinking that.  What other conclusion can my professors come to?

Well hey guys, I’ve got some news for you:  you don’t need to know what you’re talking about in a class discussion.  Sure, it always helps, but the point of class discussion is to learn through asking questions and listening to other people’s way of seeing things.  You don’t even have to read!  There, I said it!  There have been many times where I have completely forgotten to do the reading for a class discussion; even so, I have had to lead discussions on those days because everyone else refuses to talk.  You can discern certain things about any given subject; just look at context and draw your own conclusions.  For example; I didn’t read Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story; but when this was read aloud to the class “I was aware of the treacherous air vents above us, conducting the sounds we were making upstairs. Maybe dad was listening. Or maybe, just like Kevin, he was unaware of anything but the pleasure spurting up out of his body and into mine.” I can already tell the narrator has some serious daddy issues.  So, I bring that up, and the discussion usually evolves from there.  It’s not that hard.  It’s even easier when you actually know what you’re talking about.

And that’s one of the saddest things; I know for a fact that a lot of my classmates have actually done the reading!  So it’s not as if they are just clueless as to what is going on, they just refuse to contribute to the conversation.  Why should I: the guy that didn’t read, lead a discussion to a group of people who did read?  It makes absolutely no sense, and there really is no excuse for it.

If you are guilty of this; please, do me a favor: just say something.  Anything!  I don’t care if it’s “I didn’t understand that part” or “Is this the narrator we’re talking about?”  For all I care, it can be stupid as hell.  Just please say something so the teacher doesn’t feel like they’re the only one in the room.

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