Enormous classes, often known as “gen. eds,” aren’t enormously pleasant or always conducive to learning.

How often do you see, let alone mingle with, thousands of people? This fall, the NIU student population consists of approximately 25,000 students.

This semester, I’ve sat in my core math course and wondered how anyone can learn anything in such an extensively large classroom. My core math course is so large that it feels like I’m sitting in Huskie Stadium, attending another boisterous NIU football game.

Surely, learning in any large lecture hall is no easy task. In small classes, you are an individual – students are called upon on a first-name basis, and both professors and students have the luxury of being seen and heard.

In large classes, you’re reduced to a number within numbers. Students are rarely, if ever, called upon, and are identified according to their Z-ID number. The educational objective of the class – learning – is muddled with more distractions than you can count on one hand. What happened to the small classroom?

Historically, the origins of formalized education date back to the ancient Greeks. Ancient Greek classes consisted of small groups of students who gathered around a mentor to discuss and learn about the world’s complexities.

Each student had a paidagogos, a private slave who followed the student around at school and, at the end of the day, reported the student’s progress back to their family.

Classes were small in size so students could learn without being distracted.

Ancient Greeks gathered in lecture-hall style auditorium settings exclusively for entertainment. “Auditorium” is a Greek term associated with Greek notions of spectacle, sport and theater.

The events were much like today’s sporting events, in which hundreds of people, traveling vast distances, gathered in a single place to witness the glory of human spectacle.

There is a significant difference between sitting in the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, cheering violent sacrificial acts, and sitting in The School of Athens, quietly conversing with Euclid of Alexandria about the intricate nature of a circle.

One can learn in an environment where you are sandwiched between hundreds of students, but sometimes it’s easy just to do enough to not fail.

Success can occur in lecture halls, but not without considerable effort from our distracted generation. It’s up to you.