So You've Made it to Lectures. Now What: Wherein LL Rants

Image: JT Zuhlsdorf www.wdtprs.com 

Most if not all places where lectures, seminars, and talks are given are specifically designed places.  They have a specific purpose.  The very layout of the room ensures everyone can see and hear what the presenter is doing/saying.  It is a place where knowledge is imparted and questions can be asked.

  Some even have specific dedications - in honour or memory of a specific alumnus who achieved great things (or just happened to have a lot of money, as in the case of Carole Nash - there are lots of music auditoriums named after her).

There are a videos on Youtube of lecturers losing their patience at students talking during the lectures.  It's highly distracting.  During my last degree, I saw at least ten people ejected from lectures within the first week because they weren't courteous enough to not gab.  Then too self-absorbed to apologise. 

People teaching through lectures, seminars, and tutorials aren't just doing this for sh**s and giggles, they want you to succeed.  They've probably prepared long and hard so they can talk fluently and give you extra nuggets of information for the exams. Listen to them - or at least pretend to.  

What I've learnt through the faults of others

1. Show up on time, or sneak in at the back silently and take a seat near the back if you're late.

2. Phones away and on silent.  It's only an hour, or maybe even 45 minutes. You can survive without it.

3. Ask the lecturer if you can record the lecture before placing the dictaphone on the desk.

4. Do not ask questions during the lecture.  Wait until the end or do it by email. Otherwise you shall make enemies.  Don't be 'that guy.' 

5. If you're told to be quiet by a fellow student, obey.  Don't be 'that guy.'  Your life isn't so important that you can interrupt others' learning.

Please remember this, you lecture-blabbers, when you 'yuk it up' at the back (or even the front) of theatres; when you get your phones out for selfies or Facebook chat; when you snigger at the diligent student who turns around and tells you to shut the f*** up.  This is Higher Education, not Costa Coffee or High School.

A friend of mine lectures for an LLB course, and the students who bother to show up are apparently the worst behaved in the faculty, closely followed by those studying the GDL at another institution.  She has a dim opinion of them.  

Sorry… am I not being fluffy enough?  “Time’s have changed!”, you say? "We do it quietly!" "We've paid to be here so will do what we want."

I don’t think so.  Don't be 'that guy' - you will make contacts at Law School, and the person who told you to shut up in Land Law may well, one day, be a Partner in a Firm who turns you down for a job because you were a dick in years past.