How people exit class

For my class, research methods, I have been assigned to observe people’s behaviors, document the traces they leave, and consider the effects and reasons for such behaviors.

The idea came to me; record the noise of people getting up and exiting class. Last year there must have been at least 200 students in my required psych lecture. Regardless of whether or not Kotovsky was still lecturing, when the clock hit 1:50, people would pick up their bags and fold their desk back into their seat, a dramatic CLANG! would ring out, and begin to exit. I found this amazing. It seemed that collectively, students did not care for this class.

I took out my notebook and began taking notes. Our professors ended class 15 minutes before it was over, and asked us to hang out until 2:50.

2:44- No one has gotten up yet, people socializing

2:47- People start to stand up, put computers in bag

2:48- First people leave, All the people in the back three rows are gone, First 3 rows are still occupied by students

2:49- People standing up, People walking up to one another and having full conversations, saying “see you later.” 10 students and professors left

2:50- Nearly empty, Yoon Young (student with broken ankle) gets up on crutches and leaves, Supawatt leaves, Only professors left in room

It was interesting to see the sound level slowly increase to full socialization, and then, as everyone walked out, decrease to emptiness and silence.

Take a listen

I begin this recording at 1:18. My professor Ricky Law continues lecturing into 1:20. People being getting up and folding their desk while he is speaking, and as soon as the clock strikes1:20, everyone begins getting up, regardless of Ricky Law’s voice still projecting a wrap up through Porter Hall 100. There are probably at least 200 people in their, and they all funnel out of this one entrance. It is a big mosh, and a good amount of people choose to stay in their seats and slowly pack their bags until the large crowd dissipates into the hallways.

Im not sure what to exactly conclude from this. I suppose that people don’t like class, and get anxious to leave. I can personally attest that my attention span, in the most engaging of class, is only 45minutes long. In the least, I begin to check my watch and calculate how much time I have left. In a class that I have to do, that is mostly facts, my attention span in about 10 minutes at best. Students have trouble paying attention, in those last ten minutes it is hard to not just think of getting up and leaving. That such a behavior is practiced at CMU shows that this is a nearly universal behavior. A teenage rapper from Brooklyn has a lyric; “I’m in school for 9 hours just pretending to learn.” I have never met him, but that encompasses a lot of how I felt in high school. Foucault argued that much of society, especially school is based off the prison system, and I believe it.

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