My voice was clear and energized.
I made eye contact, made a few silly comments that immediately eased the group into a mindset that we were all on the same page, though I was behind a podium and they were in their seats.
We dove into discussion of my favorite book and looked at it from all corners, all points of view.
Each question seamlessly moved into the next one, prompting discussion and exploration. . . between myself, the teacher and perhaps 4 students.
out of 20.
One girl smooth out went to sleep.
Handfuls had not even read the required portion of 114 pages.
One girl had only read about 20 pages, but decided to try to commandeer class with her analogy of Jem, Scout and Dill to the Rugrats.
And ya know…perhaps it was a valid analogy. But I don’t know a Rugrat from real rat so it was lost on me. I just smiled, and let her continue to smack her gum and twirl her cinnamon colored hair extensions.
The girl that commented on how “i just really hope that doesn’t ever happen again” regarding the Holocaust was happy to talk about how sad she was that the dog got shot.
As for the rest of the class…blank stares.
Flatline.
Seriously. I was expecting Billy Mahoney to show up any minute and start kicking the living crap out of everyone.
(twenty points for the Flatliners/Keifer Sutherland reference. BAM)
There were a few, however…that were engaged. They smiled. They enjoyed the information in the packet I prepared. They watched the documentary and learned a few things. My professor was encouraging, which was nice considering she started the class by chewing out a few students and then telling us that she had no sleep due to personal family issues.
Class was over, students filed out, I was left with the extra handouts and a raging headache.
Just like a real teacher.
Misti Ridiculous 
Welcome back to school. I noticed that undergrads and grad school students often had classes together. There’s a lot to be said about muturity. Half those people in your class are there because they have no place else to be and don’t know what they want. You know what you want, are passionate about it, and this behavior confuses the herd. I am positive you rocked that classroom with your presentation.
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I’m confused…what was the age group of the class? At first I thought maybe it was HS, but then the above comment made me think COLLEGE! Yikes!!!
Oh, and this particular passage made me laugh…and then laugh a second and third and fourth time on reflection: “One girl had only read about 20 pages, but decided to try to commandeer class with her analogy of Jem, Scout and Dill to the Rugrats.”
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Trudy Huiwtt, Dan Overdeer, Bill Guy, Mr Hand!, Helen Minor… dipseedoodling and humbugging on your time…. you have the examples to live by. “Little freaks.” Bill Guy.
Sigh… can we go back in time now!
I have rarely been anywhere with you dear where you didn’t find your stage and own it. You’ll get there. Find the mark. And smile. They will have to love you. Force them to if you have to.
I know I do.
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PS If all else fails… get out the Gloria Vanderbilt and poison them like Marilyn did us… that freaking stuff was like mustard gas but it got our attention.
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PSS… Peggy Coleman. Door, SLAM! Good times my dear.
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Sounds like you had a pretty authentic fucking experience to me. Good on you for engaging and working with the worthy 4.
P.S. I have watched a lot of Rugrats (it’s not a bad show but probably better at our age if we’re high) and I don’t know what the fuck she’s on about.
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“My professor was encouraging, which was nice considering she started the class by chewing out a few students and then telling us that she had no sleep due to personal family issues.”
Holy shit!!! Nice! Yeesh. That was…an…experience…for sure.
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I couldn’t help but thinking that maybe somebody explained To Kill A Mockingbird to that girl using Rugrats because that was the only way she was going to understand it. Or….she read 20 pages of the book and thought, “Oh, this is just like Rugrats! I don’t need to read the rest of this.”
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I love that book. I would have tried to talk about it, but would have come back around to the part in the movie where Calpurnia makes Scout stand up because “your Daddy’s passin'” and it makes me bawl my face off.
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The moment that passage is read in the documentary, they are showing the movie as well. I’m bawling. The person on the movie reading it is bawling. The girl behind me in class and the teacher were crying. Oh, and the person reading it in the documentary was Oprah.
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awesome.
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What Audra said. YES AUDRA!
Can we please go back in time? I would love my daughter to experience the wonderful teachers we had at EHS. All but Mary McDaniel! LOL.
So damn proud of you Misti!
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Mary Louise can still suck it.
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Proud of you! Hell, 4 peeps paying attention is an accomplishment in my world. And ps – i love me some Scout. And pps – bless the teacher’s in our lives and our worlds, because that s.h.i.t. is hard!!
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