When the great philosophers sat high atop the Parthenon in Greece and contemplated the complexities of life, they listened, they taught, and they participated in discussions that have since influenced Western culture forever. Never in history have we heard that quite possibly these great figureheads were boring, and their students bored with the lectures they taught.

As a student, I would never have imagined that the boredom which can swallow an entire humanities class might have something to do with a bored professor. For as long as students have been students, the fundamental equation of student boredom being attributed to a lack of student interest has never truly been a question, nor publicly addressed.

Last Wednesday, while having an insightful conversation with a tenured professor, he told me a little secret. "Son," he said smiling, "can't you read the boredom on my face. These classes are boring and I'm bored." For fear of losing his job and having to fight off a wrath of Penn State administration, we will refer to him as Professor K. Professor K then went on to explain that when students don't read and participation is at a standstill, classes become lecture oriented and students become note-takers. "Note-taking," he said, "is not learning, the Greeks did not take notes."

So, where does this leave us? A university is a place of higher learning, to which students are sent in hopes of expanding their minds to ready themselves for the world outside our walls. Yet, as we take more and more notes, are we as students actually learning, or are we solely receiving a number to allow us to pass go and move on? Professor K makes a good point, boredom is felt on both sides of the blackboard. As interaction between faculty and students is continuously suppressed both by lack of student effort and overall class size, we are certainly doing ourselves a grave disservice by not getting involved.

Professor K continued on, telling me that the best way to improve one's education is to make it a "hands-on" education. With the wealth of knowledge and expertise that our faculty possesses, how can we continuously disappoint them by not opening ourselves to the challenge. To hear that a professor is bored makes me terribly angry, for as a student I am here to absorb and they are here to offer themselves, their knowledge, and their time, to the betterment of me. If I have lost their interest, I am in deep trouble and so are you. When we lose our faculty, Penn State will not be Penn State.

I leave you with the immortal words of Professor K, "Students need to do the reading, ask questions, get involved, and get what they're here for. There are no handouts in education and in four years there are only educated student winners and non-involved note-taking student losers."