OUR VIEW: If you’re reading this in class, stop

Pay attention — to your professors. If you are reading this while sitting in class and someone is giving a lecture of some sort, we suggest you put the newspaper down.

Now don’t read this wrong. Reading The Statesman, or any other publication, can be one of the most uplifting and influential activities performed during a student’s day. But does it have to be done during class? If the publication is a text book, then maybe it should be done in class. Otherwise, it can probably wait.

The rustling of newspaper or magazine pages can be very annoying to most students in class when they are trying to get the most out of the money they forked out for tuition.

Not only is the sound annoying, but if done near the front of the class it can be visually distracting as well. While listening to a fascinating lecture about World War II, the last thing the professor and students need is someone in the middle of class holding a newspaper in an upright position.

Most people try to hide the fact they couldn’t care less about what the professor is talking about by leaning their heads against the back wall while they sleep or ducking their face under their arm on the desk. By holding a magazine or newspaper up in class, students are inconsiderately saying, “I don’t care about you or what you are trying to tell me.”

Put the paper down and listen. You’re paying for it.