The Talkative Professor

There was once a professor of biology at the University of Oklahoma who was extremely talkative. During a typical class lecture, he could talk and talk and talk for hours on end. He would often ramble so much that his classes could not cover the required material for the course. He teaching assistants often grew frustrated, as they were the ones tasked with teaching students the course material that was not covered in class during tutoring hours. They wanted desperately to convince the professor that talking nonstop and rambling during class was not good. They searched for an opportunity to teach this lesson.

In a nearby classroom, there was a chemistry professor that was very strict with his class. He was a bit old school in that he went strictly by the book and was a stickler for enforcing rules. One of his most strictly enforced rules was the rule of absolutely no talking during exams in the lab. One day, the professor gave his students a lab quiz. He explained to them that this quiz would not be a negative impact on their grades; rather, it was simply a gauge of where they were at in conquering the material. There was only one rule: absolutely no talking for the fifty-minute duration of the quiz. This was especially difficult for Cindy, a self-described chat-aholic. She always wanted to talk to her friends. By no means would she ever cheat on an exam. She was an honor roll student, after all. However, sometimes she could not resist the urge to open her mouth. About halfway through the quiz, it happened.

“Hey Alyssa, do you know what the date is today?” Cindy asked her lab partner.

Immediately, she realized her mistake. The professor walked over and picked up her quiz. He shredded the quiz into millions of little pieces and asked her to step out into the hall. Terror swept over Cindy’s body.

“I clearly explained the rules. This quiz has no impact on your grade, but there is no talking allowed whatsoever. There was no need for you to talk. I view every word as possible cheating, and cheating is not tolerated. Now, you will be forced to drop this course and face academic integrity discipline,” the professor began to explain. “You could even be forced out of the university.”

Cindy was overwhelmed with regret and grief. This scene created quite a commotion. In the room next door, two biology teaching assistants and a professor of biology came to see what was the matter with Cindy, who they knew was an excellent student in their course. Cindy explained the situation, but she was still inconsolable. The teaching assistants had an epiphany. This was their teaching moment for their professor.

“See, professor,” the assistants began. “Talking is not always a good thing. Sometimes it is good to control your talking and choose your words wisely. This is a lesson that could be transferred to our class.”

The professor saw the error in his ways and vowed to talk only when necessary to promote better learning in his course.

Author's Note:

I based my story on the story of the talkative tortoise. In this story, there was a future Buddha that was born and became an adviser to a king. The king was very talkative, and the Buddha wanted to put an end to the talkative nature of the king. He was always looking for a way to do so. One day nearby, there was a tortoise. He became great friends with two ducks. The ducks offered to take him with them to their nice home. In order to do so, the tortoise would have to keep his mouth clenched on a stick while they carried him in the sky and refrain from talking. The tortoise agreed. On the way, villagers spotted this sight and mocked the tortoise. The tortoise spoke in retaliation. As a result, the tortoise fell to the ground and died. The future Buddha took the king to see this sight. It served as a lesson for the king to talk less and choose his words more carefully. I used a similar theme of the importance of not talking all the time but with different characters and setting. I talked about a class at OU that requires students to remain silent. One student talked and was kicked out of the class. This serves as a lesson for a professor in the classroom next-door who is always talking nonstop and hindering his students' learning with his constant storytelling.

Bibliography: The Talkative Tortoise by Joseph Jacobs