Eating in lectures

From Legal Cheek 19/09/13:

A Canadian law student has got off to a bad start to the academic year after a spectacularly grouchy email they sent to their coursemates was leaked into the blogosphere.

The missive [which can be read in full over at Legal Cheek] takes issue with the author's peers' propensity to eat during lectures, with tuna sandwiches and apples highlighted as particularly problematic snacks because they, respectively, "stink up the entire room" and lead to "the gnashing of your teeth and the crunch crunch crunch".

Eating in lectures has always been a no-no in my book. I consider myself to be on the slightly prudish side of the spectrum when it comes to these things (I’m still not completely sold on the concept of eating something walking down the street, for instance), but I think a lot of students would fine eating in class to be an unwelcome distraction.

When I was a student, my attention could be easily broken and trying to take information in during a lecture can be difficult enough with the various, sights, smells and noises that accompany the average bunch of law students. To try and concentrate in a lecture hall immersed in a scene that resembles feeding time at the zoo is simply too much to ask.

Outside of having a medical condition which affects a student’s blood sugar level, there really is no need to eat in lectures or seminars. Certainly the lecturers at my university universities wouldn’t have stood for it and there’s no need to let standards slip now.

As an aside, in a former job, I was once astounded by the audacity of a colleague who decided that despite eating her mid-morning snack, it was the perfect opportunity to go up and discuss something with the MD. He took it in good humour; personally, I would have told her to come back and see me after she’d finished munching on her apple (and done so in no uncertain terms!). Clearly he was a more tolerant chap than I am.