I never cease to be amazed by the power of “scientific studies” to tell us what we already know. On Monday, a Canadian study alerted my heretofore ignorant self that having laptops in class distracts students during lectures and may impede their learning. Groundbreaking discovery, I know.

I know I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss research that I have not even bothered to read because, after all, it may be relevant in some scientific circles of education research. However, for the rest of us back on Earth, the finding is about as obvious as it can get. Just walk to the back of any large lecture hall and look at the sea of glowing screens: I’d put my money on at least a third of students browsing through Facebook or at least having a Facebook tab open.

Granted, anecdotal evidence does not technically give empirical confirmation of whether perusing Facebook and writing emails actually impede students’ learning. But lectures are not science experiments, and pedagogy does not follow the neat laws of physics. That’s a topic inappropriately complex for an opinion piece, so I’ll stick to a story of my personal experiences.

Last Winter Quarter, I took Classics 211 with Prof. Robert Wallace. The course covers ancient Athenian civilization – you know, Sophocles, Plato, the Peloponnesian War, et cetera – and Prof. Wallace is what you might imagine to be the stereotype of the eccentric classics professor. The class was without a doubt one of the best I’ve taken at Northwestern, but it will forever stand out to me for a different reason.

After Prof. Wallace gave us an overview of the course, he startled us with something I’ve never seen before or since: All laptops were banned. It took me a second at first to realize that he was actually being serious. I whined. I complained. I said the policy was draconian – which, by the way, is a term of Greek origin. And if another professor did the same, I’d probably react no differently. Being a bit of a drama queen, in the end, it was nowhere near as big a deal as I made it out to be, though my wrists certainly did get sore.

But if you ask me, I honestly wish more professors did that.

I don’t consider myself lazy. I actually attend a vast majority of my lectures and try to listen and take notes as best as I can, but paying attention is a notoriously difficult task, especially when Facebook chat and funny cat pictures are just a few clicks away, and the lecture hall is too large for you to be singled out.

Resent it as we may, we usually require a kick in the butt to get ourselves together. You don’t need research to tell you that.

Summer columnist Julian Caracotsios is a rising Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, leave a comment or send a letter to the editor to [email protected].