Adventures in English class...
Offline So, I go to a fer-shit little community college in my town. I'm taking English II this semester, and we've been reading and discussing A Rose For Emily. My class is in a Distance Learning classroom, which means that high school students who are taking college-level classes early can tune in through television sets and participate in the class.
A group of girls from one of the schools pops up and says "We think Tobe (the main character's slave) is gay, because in the story he is always using the 'back door' to go in and out of the house."
Of course, the podunk, inbred shit-kickers with whom I am forced to share oxygen thought the comment was really funny.
The teacher asked them to elaborate and they just repeated what they had said, so she told them their point really wasn't valid.
The sad thing is that, though I'm sure these little girls thought they were being humorous, they seemed to actually believe what they were saying made sense.
This mantra is the only thing keeping me sane:
"One more semester, and I'm out of here." (breathe and repeat)
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Hate to tell you, but classes without at least one token dumbass are a rare find. A colleague of mine suffered through a PhD level E. coli genetics course (basically our department's early fail-out course) with a young Mormon woman who barely eked through due to constant misinterpretation of the literature; as we all know, a failure to understand genetics is kind of a congenital defect with the Mormons, but there you go.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell
Don't feel bad for the token dumbasses.
Feel bad for the professors who are more or less obligated to take them seriously.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
Naw, I feel bad for myself. Because there isn't a "token dumbass" in this class:
They're all dumbasses.
I should somehow find a way to record this, so that others will believe me when I tell them how ridiculous it truly is. I guess I could bring a video camera to class one day, but I don't think my teacher would enjoy that very much.
Not to sound pretentious, but the professor really loves me. Somewhat because I am a grammar and spelling Nazi with a working knowledge and interest in literature but...
mostly, because I'm not an idiot.
HA! I've been on both sides of the fence, but the only time i open my mouth for the dumb ass side is when I'm in a class where the teacher is the actual dumb ass( which can be surprisingly more than i like). Usually I'm the kid that should be going to a regular college but am going to community college at first and then transferring to another after i get alot of my classes out of the way or at least as many as i can. So usually I am like you in my classes. because i to have a functioning brain and i do use it.
But i have been in the same situation as you what is fun is confronting the student after class. Then ask them if they want you to help them to understand the work you are doing in class. They usually hold off on the dumb comments for a little while... I know it wont help you with them but i could help you in the long run.
I feel bad for the Teachers who really care about what they are doing.
At least the teacher shot them down. In another context, with a better delivery, and on someone else's time, that might be funny. Actually, no, I'm thinking only ironically would that ever be funny, and that might be a little subtle for that audience.
Naw. They were hoping that they proved they could read to the teacher. "Do I get a mark for that?" "Ah, no."
Holy shit have I ever been there. That was in a former life, when my classmates would occasionally throw small crumpled pieces of paper at my head for answering questions. Ah, the memories.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
I hate classes with dumbasses. It makes me hate people a little more.
You said it. It's why I hate people now.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
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Meh. Not a college class has gone by without me wanting to engage the prof in a debate on one subject or another, most of them centering around religion(the guy actually thinks a standard christian is a deist, though maybe I'm misreading him[complicated]). But I know that I'd simply be taking up class time on something that isn't the subject matter of the course, which could lead to various issues. I'd complain, but he'd just be replaced by someone of a similar tack, or by someone not nearly as qualified as the instructor to teach the classes I'm in. Screwed either way. So I'll suffer through it. Then write a horrid critique for the end of the year review.
There are a couple idiots amongst the students of course, but they aren't as glaring, so I tend to simply ignore it.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
If the whole class thinks someone is a dumbass, they CAN be entertaining.