Those who inhibit learning beware

by Sawyer Thomas, online editor

Apparently, there are people in the world whose sole purpose is to inhibit others from learning. 

As I learned the hard way, some people think that it is their responsibility to say the one thing that everybody may or may not be thinking, just to be the life of the classroom.

            The situation is simple.  I was sitting in Chemistry class recently trying to talk my way through a molarity equation, attempting to convert to grams, and I’m talking to my neighbor, trying to understand what’s going on.  From a muffled voice in the back of the classroom, I hear “Why don’t you stop talking?”  My teacher asks what he said, and his response was, “I’m talking to the dude up front,” too afraid to repeat what he had said, probably because it was incredibly rude. 

I gathered my things and walked out of the class.  When others asked me if I was leaving, I replied, “What’s the point of me staying in here trying to learn, when I can’t even talk myself through a problem?”

            This person who I have now dubbed a “learning inhibitor” thought that he was being so cute with his snide comments and rude disposition.  Granted, there were a few laughs, but I paid for the class just like he did.  Everybody learns differently, and I happen to be one of those people who understands the material by talking my way through it.  There are way too many things going on in my head, so I can’t keep it inside.  I talk myself through it, because it helps me to understand just exactly what I am doing.  Then in future instances, I can actually whisper myself through the problem, and understand.  It helps me to succeed.

            But these “learning inhibitors” are going to be the ruin of me.  What frustrates me so is that I was actually beginning to understand the material, (and molarity conversions are not easy).  But after this incident I was so red with fury and upset with this inhibitor that I could no longer do the equation, because I could only think about what I should have said in my own defense.  I already go through enough trying to deal with who I am.  I shouldn’t have to worry about whether I’m learning because somebody decided to be a putz.

            I’m one of the people who can’t say things in my own defense.  I’ll think of things to say later, and I’ll tell my friends that I said them, but I’m more passive-aggressive than anything else.  Therefore, this article has come into existence because of my passive-aggressive nature.

All I know is that I’m in college for a reason.  Because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working at a Chinese buffet (despite how much I love my current job), and I don’t want to end up as a pothead or somebody who isn’t worth anything to society.  But for some reason or another, people want to prevent that.

            I’m still angry, and I probably will remain angry, until something changes.  I need to learn, because without my education, I’m nothing.  It is my education that has carried me this far.  It got me through elementary school, middle school, and high school, and it got me accepted to three major colleges in the United States.  I didn’t go to any of them, because they were WAY too expensive.  It gets me job opportunities, and it helps me make some of the decisions that will affect my life.

            I just can’t deal with this person.  The fact that he was so blindly hateful toward me when he doesn’t even know me, knows absolutely nothing about who I am or where I come from, blows me away.  I bear no ill will towards this person, and I have shown no signs of hatred or judgment.  Yet he still sheds judgment on me.  It just goes to show how far we as a race have come.  That we still pass judgment on our fellow men is astonishing.  I just wish that people would let me be, and just let me do what I pay to come here to do—to learn.  I want to expand my education and further my life experiences so that I may better myself as a person, as he should have bettered himself as a person, rather than crush the dreams of innocent learners.  The classroom should be neutral ground, with  all drama and hatred left at the door.  We are here for the same purpose.

            I don’t have mommy and daddy to fall back on if I fail.  I’m paying for school myself, without grants or scholarships.  So it’s super important that I pass, and I can’t do that if I’m so frustrated and angry at my classmates that it’s distracting me from obtaining my education. 

So to all readers who have that person that you like to pick on and make fun of in class, it is counter productive for you to inhibit the obtaining of education from instructors who wish nothing but to further the success of an individual student.