You - You Got A Nasty Reputation...

Well, I've been out of school for some time, and apparently some protocols have changed. After going to school for some 18 odd-years and another 3 and-a-half years of college (of brutal torture at the hands of my engineering professors) I came to believe that it was common practice to (as Bon Jovi teaches us) "raise your hand...from New Jersey to Tokyo." Well, apparently everyone didn't get that memo. I'm enrolled in a part-time bschool program in San Francisco and I've noticed that there are a couple of people who haven't caught on to the whole "raise your hand if you have a question or a comment" concept. They opt instead to just start talking.

It may seem petty of me to complain about this, but it completely disrupts the group dynamic. There are lots of rules in society that only work if everyone follows them (like agreeing to only use toilets and not sinks to urinate in. No that's a bad example...). As soon as a few people stop they cease to work because they force everyone else to follow-suit. If one individual keeps cutting other people off because they don't raise their hand pretty soon everyone starts to do the same thing because otherwise they don't get to ask their question/make their comment. Add in the fact that there's a class participation grade in many classes and people start to get nasty.

Truth be told I've seen this before. When I was in college we actually had a kid in one of my classes that did the on a regular basis. The situation was resolved when my old-roommate would imitate him when he cut people off and tried to ask a question (this typically meant that he interrupted the interruptor and that got his point across eventually). Are there less coercive ways to get the message across? Is it possible that the offenders don't really realize what it is that they're doing?

This is exactly the type of thing that would somehow appear in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". Larry David would decide he doesn't like this social norm and refuse to follow it and something would happen as a result (and Cheryl/Wanda would yell at him). As an aside, the new season starts this September and I think it's going to be very very funny (well that's what my sources tell me).

Anyways, I've decided to be vigilant and confront this problem head-on. I'll confront the offender and politely (all of you who know me and are laughing right now please stop, it's rude) ask them to start raising their hands in class. We'll see how that goes...