University is marketed as an experience that opens up multiple doors to the future, while simultaneously being wildly fun.

It’s no surprise, then, that many students don’t have patience for dull classes.

After all, for many, “fun” doesn’t necessarily equal listening to long-winded monologues.

What do we, as students, find fun?

For starters, most Canadians tune in to over 20 hours a week of television.

It’s not that we’re a nation of philistines – we just like our entertainment. Back on campus, this demand is being met by the emergence of the fun professor.

A fun professor knows that many students have numerous commitments, fleeting attention spans and a healthy appreciation of pop culture. 

Not to be deterred, fun professors spice things up by making cutting-edge TV references, advising students to merely get a general idea of class readings and showing entertaining video clips to get difficult points across.

The result? Bored students wake up and proceed to enjoy the class. Gone are the days of plodding lectures – they are now being replaced by engaging, fast-paced performances. 

A recent Cinema Politica screening of the documentary Being Human showcased this changing role of the educator with the word “séducation” (a combination of seduction and education).

In the past, teachers taught and students learned obediently. These days, teachers often have to charm their students into even wanting to learn. 

A class wherein a professor isn’t engaging and charismatic quickly results in students making hasty exits, sometimes minutes into the course.

Meanwhile, instead of watching hasty retreats, fun professors can read their rave reviews on such ever-popular websites as RateMyProfessors.com.

There, instead of voting on professors’ academic background, or even class content, students evaluate their former professors for “easiness,” “clarity” and “helpfulness.” Oh, and students can also rate their attractiveness. 

Rate My Professors has received its due criticism as an illegitimate form of evaluating professors, but its popularity suggests that most students really do want easy, clear and helpful professors (of course, being attractive doesn’t hurt).

Perhaps Rate My Professors merely represents a search for accessible, engaging teaching.

Learning is exciting, but can become dull when a teacher doesn’t animate a class properly. Often, it’s not so much the subject, but the teacher that brings it to life. In that sense, it doesn’t matter how many degrees someone has, but how enjoyable they can make their class.

To capture the large Rate My Professors demographic, several universities now offer courses that draw the greater philosophical, ethical and social messages embedded in The Simpsons – and such classes have proven quite popular.

It makes sense that students would want to take a course that combines both learning and entertainment. 

Within the confines of academia’s lofty requirements, perhaps fun professors represent a dilution of university work.

After all, post-university life is by no means simple, and isn’t always fun. There is a case to be made for the creation of a finely tuned mind achieved through painstaking lectures and dry-as-dust material, far away from the world of easiness, fun and clarity.

Likewise, regardless of how enjoyable one’s education was, post-university jobs that require a certain skill set still need to be found.

However, teaching a class in a more entertaining way will help students absorb course information more easily, as well as attract them to a given field.

Besides, who doesn’t like a little fun?

Teaching in an entertaining way certainly does not mean less work, or shying away from a traditional academic framework. Rather, it means making the course content relevant and engaging to students.

If that involves discussing the latest hit TV show, so be it.

Ezra Bridgman is currently enjoying taking (fun) courses at the University of Winnipeg.

Published in Volume 65, Number 19 of The Uniter (February 10, 2011)