I feel that maybe I'm an old guy, because that drawing attention to oneself - in my background - was always frowned upon.
It's what I detest about Facebook. Your status? Really? Like, every ten minutes? My students tap on their phones during class. They do it quick as a wink like I won't see. (My old eyes don't focus.)
It all seems like noise, noise, noise. This guy who lives on the corner of my cul de sac and his radio. It's louder than he needs it, let me say that. It's playing at arena volume and he's sitting right next to it. I know it's not for him. He's playing some ugly music at top volume to show the world something. "Here is my noise; here is me."
Again, big deal. Who thinks that has any value.
These ridiculous cretins who come around blogs to tell us how wrong we all are. What do they think is going to happen. Their noise, their insults, is about them and only them. That honest_prof motherfucker is all about what an embarrassment we are to real professors. Why come around then, sweetie. If the page is dead anyway, don't worry about it. Go make your noise elsewhere.
While I value quiet, there's something to be said for a bit of noise. When I'm in my office, I'm usually playing some hard bop: just loud enough to be heard by a student at my door. That scares off some of the weaker willed.
ReplyDeleteOne the great things about teaching at the college level, is that my students want to be there. It is not high school. I am not forcing them to stay in the classroom. I always let my students know that, if this class is not working out for them, they are free to leave. Because of the subject matter I teach and the way I teach it, I have students taking me up on that offer pretty quickly. Then, I am left with the students that want to be there and are truly engaged. I don’t understand why a student will linger in the class and be disruptive, if it evident that they are getting nothing out of it.
ReplyDeleteMy age may not reflect it, but I'm a bit of an old crank at heart.
ReplyDeleteNoise I can't stand: earphone leak. In some ways worse than a boombox because instead of hearing the song you just get bass, cymbal, and the occasional guitar whine or shouted lyric.
Nothing worse than being at the library, getting all settled in to do some work, and someone comes and plops down with his crappy leaky earbuds. Subway cars yield similar frustrations.
Noise cancelling headphones combat this, but they can be a hassle to carry around all day. And sometimes I just don't want to have to listen to anything, even white noise.
Earplugs. Oh how I love my earplugs. I carry them everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThey make noise for the same reason a dog licks his balls: because he can. If men could do that, I imagine very little work would get done. On the other hand, there would be no war. Another reason they make so much noise is that no one will listen to them.
ReplyDelete