It’s odd that I’ve only recently noticed how barren most of the walls are in many of the actual Drexel classrooms. I remember that in high school, the walls of every single room in the building were usually masked by either flyers advertising upcoming school dances or fund-raising events or posters pertaining to the subject that was normally taught in the given room (e. g. a list of Shakespeare’s dramas on the wall of an English classroom). And so, this essentially meant that if the teacher was lecturing on a rather tedious subject, we students were, with the inspiration of the wall-art, free to daydream. In English then, a list of Shakespeare’s plays would, for me, bring to mind the film She’s The Man, a ‘modern interpretation’ of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and so then, of course, through the process of free association, Amanda Bynes would come to mind, which would then conjure up images of her What I Like About You days and so on and so forth. The walls of the Drexel classrooms, however, except for the occasional periodic table of elements, appear bare, such that should one want to daydream with the inspiration of the wall-art, one would be forced to rely on whatever fantasies were invoked through the off-white paint plastered on the walls.

I’ve realized, however, that I tend to pay much more attention in these classrooms – those that contain the vacant, uninspiring walls. Perhaps, these blank, white walls were intended to focus students’ attention on the subject of the professor’s lecture. For instance, I was sitting through a rather monotonous physics recitation a few days ago and although I would have rather fantasized about studying abroad in Hawaii or some other exotic locale, I forced myself to pay attention in class and therefore, learned the main principles relating to fluid behavior and motion (whether I’ll retain this information is an entirely different story). Moreover, it could be said that the lack of wall-art also serves in liberating students’ minds, such that students must think outside the box and draw whatever inspiration they can from the blank canvas of the walls. Hence, students are not constrained by whatever the walls may display. Ironically, then, creativity, imagination, and originality are thus, fostered in what may appear to be a blank and vacant environment.

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