I had an idea for this column. It came to me while I was daydreaming in class one day. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that so many people on campus suffer from the same problem.
People today have short attention spans. They can’t even focus on one topic for more that a few minutes.
It’s like the other day when I was in another class-the people were all looking down at their laps. I didn’t know what was going on until I looked over and saw them working the crossword puzzle in the paper. I was so ashamed for these students who were obviously ignoring the teacher’s notes.
I looked over to tell some of them to pay attention when I saw that I knew the answer to 5-down. I debated whether or not to tell the person that a goat’s offspring was a kid. I mean, how could a college student not know that answer to that one? My toddler cousin could answer that.
Something is obviously wrong with the education system. I blame budget cuts.
I wouldn’t be good at making budgets. Communication majors, as a rule, are not known for their genius math skills. I struggled through my trigonometry class.
Speaking of, why do we need to know the rules of a right triangle? Communication majors I mean. I can’t think of one time in my future career where I might need to know how tall the flagpole’s shadow falls if I’m standing 500 feet away. But we have our strengths, too.
Show me another major where the students can talk their way out of almost any situation. It’s what one of my teachers always says. We are master communicators.
Speaking of teachers, I try to pay attention to them during class. Unlike my other classmates who are engrossed in the crossword section during the lecture.
Kid … I mean, that’s not a hard answer. Horses have foals, chickens have chicks and goats have kids. It’s one of the first things we’re taught as children, right after the colors and shapes. I tell you guys, we need to look at our education system.
You know when I was in third grade we went to a petting zoo. I saw a baby goat, a.k.a. kid, there, too. I didn’t pet him though. He smelled funny. Those were good times.
Okay, so back to the class. I finally decided to let the occupied student figure out the answer without my expert help. I had better things to do than contribute to such distracting behavior. I mean some people have no respect for their teachers.
Respect. Now that’s another topic completely. Good song though. Aretha Franklin was amazing. I also liked “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Oh wait … that was Gladys Knight and the Pips. Still, I loved that song. The lyrics were so powerful and meaningful. Why can’t they write songs like that anymore?
But now is not the time to sing a Motown anthology. I’m upset that so many people cannot pay attention for a 50-minute lecture.
I just couldn’t believe that a student would let his attention be diverted so easily. I was thinking about this more when I realized that most of the people in class had already left. The teacher had finished and left the room a few minutes before.
As I stood up, I made a mental note to write about students with such short attention spans. They should be ashamed. We are here to learn, not to worry about petty little things that don’t matter.
And what college-aged student doesn’t know that a goat’s offspring is a kid?