Large classes are an amazing thing. I’m so astounded that over four hundred students can remain silent for any period of time and for any reason. It’s not that I don’t think that they have self control (though some people just don’t), but rather that there is always someone who feels that they need to be doing something else at some point in a group that big. Statistically speaking it is likely that every time we meet it is someones birthday. The point is, there is always somebody who can justify some reason to not follow the rules. However, when students decide to exercise and exert their efforts on something together, as a group, they can do amazing and powerful things.
One of the most amazing lessons I ever learned was from my high school drama teacher. A student was complaining about having to memorize and perform a one minute monologue. This student asked how many points they’d lose if it was only thirty seconds long. The teacher responded by saying something like, “thirty seconds is a LONG time.” He then held up a hand (indicating a desire for silence and attention), turned his head towards a clock, and waited for thirty entire seconds in complete silence. If you decide to pay attention to it then thirty seconds really is an eternity. You just needed to be quiet to realize that it really is a long time (and thus, a big deal).
It was with this in mind that I sat, with over four hundred college students, in complete silence for a period of time on our first day of class. The demonstration was to show what silence really was (and what four hundred students whispering actually sounds like). We watch movies in this class and we don’t need four hundred people whispering — how would we ever year the dialogue with all of that going on?