As nice as it is to laugh, it is important to remember that the classroom is mean't to be a place of learning. A student's education is too important to introduce yet another distracting element. Especially when looking at younger students, there is already enough trouble getting them to focus without the added challenge of them going off on unrelated tangents as a result of related or unrelated jokes.

 

A study published in the Communication Education  Journal on behalf of the National Communication Association that examined the effect of integrated humor in the classroom demonstrated that students who are taught with humorous examples actually performed worse on both multiple choice and opened- ended test formats when compared against students who were taught using standard examples (Bolkan et al.144).

 

If even humor related to the coursework caused a decline in academic performance why would unrelated jokes be any better? These humorous elements detach the student from the lesson and cause them to miss important information. By interrupting the seriousness of the learning environment humor causes a decrease in focus which results in poor performance in many types of tests.

 

Not only does it detract from the content of the course but by joking around with their students teachers actually reduce their ability to command authority. When a teacher is overly humorous or sarcastic it takes away from the respect their students have for them and diminishes their credibility in the students mind. Teacher evaluations have shown that an excessive use of humor actually results in lower scores on these evaluations by students. If there is a lack of distinction for a student between what constitutes an authority figure and what constitutes a peer how can they expect to be taken seriously? 

 

Most people have been told at one point or another that they must lead by example. Since this is the case how can a teacher who acts jokingly expect their class to act? By seeing and replicating the carefree attitude of the teacher the students will lose the drive and focus which is necessary to properly retain the information.

 

In his article Dangers of Classroom Humor David Sudol is quoted as saying that starting the class with a joke, even at the college level, can lead to “the tone of the class [becoming] too loose, too happy-go-lucky, too carefree.” and that “In that setting no learning takes place” (Sudol 26).

 

If professors themselves have noticed that humor takes away from the learning atmosphere of the class, then why not take heed of that warning? It's first hand accounts such as his which show why it is too risky to even attempt to integrate humor. Regardless of any potential it has to do good, the threat that humor poses of causing the class to reach a state where it can no longer serve its purpose is too great a sacrifice to make it worthwhile.