How to be a Great Student: Part One

“A student of life considers the world a classroom.”
Harvey Mackay

How to be a Great Student: Part One

Get a good seat for the show.

This is part of a series, click the tag: Be a Good Student for more.

In the 1970s, video cameras became available as a tool in the universities. Researchers quickly turned the camera on the classroom.

They found that a teacher teaches the first two rows and the two rows down the middle in a classroom. From the teacher’s point of view, it would look like an inverted T. This is not deliberate, this is human nature when facing a classroom of rows and columns. They naturally give the vast bulk of their attention to these parts of a class.

Teachers know this and try to widen their focus but it is unnatural. It is a hard T to break, I used to pace in front of my class to try and make that T move side to side. The conclusion in the 1970s was that it is best to have a semi-circular classroom but that is rarely done except for the very young students.

The Great Student will put themselves in either the first two horizontal rows or in the vertical middle rows. This way they can get the best from the teacher. Communication is more than words, it is the eyes and the face that express the message as well. Get the most that you can and get the best from your teacher.

It is the same with church or a conference or a town hall meeting or a lecture. To get the most of your experience, put yourself in the place to receive the best of what is available. Find the right seat in front or down the middle and it will suit you to a T.