Search this website
Email Jan Susina
This form does not yet contain any fields.
    login
    Friday
    Sep022011

    "Did anything important happen in class?"

    I'm not the only professor who complains when students ask "Did anything important happen in class?"  My quote in yesterday's Huffington Post article on professors' pet peeves, prompted graduate student and Jane Austen fan extraordianaire, Ardis, to bring by a great poem by Tom Wayman with a similar theme.  Thanks Ardis for the poem. I'm reprinting here because it is well, rather humorous, from a professor's point of view.

    Did I Miss Anything?

    Tom Wayman
    From:   The Astonishing Weight of the Dead. Vancouver: Polestar, 1994.

    Question frequently asked by students after missing a class

    Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
    we sat with our hands folded on our desks
    in silence, for the full two hours

            Everything. I gave an exam worth
            40 per cent of the grade for this term
            and assigned some reading due today
            on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
            worth 50 per cent

    Nothing. None of the content of this course
    has value or meaning
    Take as many days off as you like:
    any activities we undertake as a class
    I assure you will not matter either to you or me
    and are without purpose

            Everything. A few minutes after we began last timeA detail from The Adoration of the Magi by Edward Burne-Jones
            a shaft of light descended and an angel
            or other heavenly being appeared
            and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
            to attain divine wisdom in this life and
            the hereafter
            This is the last time the class will meet
            before we disperse to bring this good news to all people
                    on earth

    Nothing. When you are not present
    how could something significant occur?

            Everything. Contained in this classroom
            is a microcosm of human existence
            assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
            This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
                    gathered

            but it was one place

            And you weren't here

    PrintView Printer Friendly Version

    EmailEmail Article to Friend

    Reader Comments

    There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

    PostPost a New Comment

    Enter your information below to add a new comment.

    My response is on my own website »
    Author Email (optional):
    Author URL (optional):
    Post:
     
    Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
    « Talk to UClub on profs' pet peeves article | Main | Professor's pet peeves and succeeding in college »