“So with that, we’re going to look at a powerpoint to go over some of the main points of this issue.”
Uh-oh.
“Could you pull the projector screen down?”
No, please.
“Could someone hit the lights?”
No! No! No!
The classroom falls into an unlighted abyss, and once again, I prepare myself, my head, and my eyes to adjust to the upcoming period of darkness that I know will soon lull me to sleep.  The projector turns on as I avert my eyes from the singing screen that radiates burning light, permeating the dark classroom.
Here we go again, I say to myself.
It’s Friday, and it has to be the sixth powerpoint of the week.  From classroom lights flickering on and off, and powerpoints zooming from slide to slide toasting my eyes to a crisp, I cannot help but feel a little bit of joy when a teacher’s computer freezes in the middle of the 57th slide an hour into their lecture.
“I guess it’s just not working, could someone turn the lights back on?”
Haha, yes.
But my joy is quickly turned into an awful, powerpoint hangover, as I readjust to the sudden flood of incandescent lighting and a student pulling the blue curtains back open to let the sweet sunlight back in.
My head aches, my eyes feel like swollen beach balls, and my body, which has been locked in like a statue for the duration of the powerpoint, feels like an old assembly-line machine having to reactivate after five years of disservice.  Are lectures really supposed to be this painful, physically?
Even if you do not easily get headaches like I do, one thing is apparent to everyone when turning on the lights after an hour long powerpoint presentation––the classroom mood has crumbled.  Students slouching halfway down their seats stay slouching, yawns crack throughout the room, some followed by great sighs, eyes are glued shut, and those that are still open are either staring blankly into space or at the clock.
I get that many teachers rely on their powerpoints to teach, but when on average a class spends more time in the dark getting their brains fried by powerpoints then with the light on engaging in discussions and interactive activities, something needs to change.
It’s one thing to complain about classroom atmosphere, but the excessive use of powerpoints in dark classrooms takes a physical toll.  Just as moms always say don’t stare at the screen for too long, or don’t watch movies in pitch black, I feel the same should apply to a classroom.
Yes, it may not be as severe as computer vision syndrome, but having one’s eyes fixated on a screen for a long period of time in the dark just doesn’t feel like the right way to accumulate information for students.
I know what the rebuttal will be: In five months, I will be sitting in my college classroom for two maybe even three hours looking at professors present bland powerpoints to half-awake students.
But when students have four periods a day rushing from class to class after six hours of sleep the previous night, most just need a break, not something that will make them crash in the middle of second block.
Perhaps I need to just suck it up, and find a way to cope with this type of lecture, or just start training myself to grow eyes of iron and a mind of steel.  But for now, powerpoint lectures and poor lighting are not illuminating the minds of students —they’re just leaving them in the dark.