It’s springtime! The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the breezes are just peaches and cream ideal. Feel like going for a frolic out in the park?
Hmmm. Well, it’s too bad I said spring, not summer… Sorry little nugget, school’s still in session.
You’ve got a few more months to go, but good old Spring Fever is starting to pulse through those angsty, youthful veins of yours. Just look at it go.
Now you could always skip — play a little hooky, fake sick — but you and I both know you’re too lazy to wander that far from campus, and I mean, hey, why would you when they’ve got that great botanical garden for you to roll around in like a puppy off the leash? So that means the chances of you getting pinched by your professor while they’re switching classes are not in favor of you hacking up a lung and then pasting it into an email to them. And take it from someone who’s lived and learned: you actually should try to do well in class, you know, like for your life and whatnot.
So that leaves you with one obvious and fair solution to make everyone happy. Ah yes, it’s time to be that student. Don’t even raise your hand, just have at it loud and proud: “CAN WE HAVE CLASS OUTSIDE?!” Except, the answer to that age old question always seems to be the same… NO.
Fear not biddies, for the master is here to teach you. Professors have to shoot down questions like that. If they didn’t maintain authority the place would be a complete zoo (wait, what is it now?) but underneath all that tough talk all professors are really just sensitive little lambs, all you have to do is find their soft spot. Make them feel like the two of you are connected as teacher and student; if you make someone feel like they’re your guiding light they’ll be sure to follow you everywhere *villainous laugh*.
Alright that may have been a bit dark — happened kind of fast too, wow — but really, there are a few highly proven techniques on how to get your professors to have class outside.
1. Convince them it was their idea
It’s not as hard as it sounds. If you’ve ever been the “but I don’t get it” kid you know all too well that professors, like any other worker in any field, like to see success, meaning they’re going to sit there with you and explain it every way under the sun until that sponge of yours soaks it all up. What you might not know is that this question can be asked rather strategically to leave them with going outside as the only possible solution.
Try concluding that the reason you don’t get it is because you’re just a three dimensional thinker, paper, notes, charts, these mean nothing. You need real world examples, you need objects; you my friend are a “hands on learne.”. If you word it right, they’ll take you at least out of the classroom, if not all the way outside, to get you the answers you’re trying just so gosh darn hard for. Don’t ask at the end of class though, and don’t do this alone — you’ll end up staying later with them. You have to get everybody to go full game on before the first piece of chalk hits the board.
2. Incorporate going outside with an assignment
Got any presentations coming up? Have you ever heard a professor say that following the instructions is a B and going above and beyond is an A? Are you putting this together yet? By incorporating a real world element (AKA you have to give your presentation out on the campus quadrangle) it’ll just look like you got really super into the assignment and took things to the next level and put in more effort than scribbling on note cards. Professors are always proud of students who take initiative.
3. The old ‘fake professor’ routine
(GIF via Tumblr )
Get a friend from a different major who will never have this professor to suit up, grab a briefcase and rename themselves something really legit sounding. I mean it, no one is going to believe Professor Bumbleberry, but Professor Jenson just might do it. Have Professor Jenson “run into” your real professor on their way to class and stop them to chat as if they’ve met and see each other at faculty events and stuff.
Assuming your professor isn’t a complete jerk, they’ll play along out of politeness. Then, Professor Jenson can casually slip in the recent conversation he overheard between such-and-such offices about keeping up with progressive teaching practices and how, for example, including an on-campus field trip is a nice, easy way to hurry up and meet that criteria. Perhaps this gives your professor the idea to do the same. Excessive? Perhaps. But you’ve got to believe in the cause.
So will you have class outside?
All GIFs via Giphy unless otherwise noted.