Overheard conversation at a play
I went to a play last Saturday. While waiting for it to start, the women behind me gabbed...or rather, one gabbed, and the other made sympathetic noises. The loud woman somehow managed to include her job title in every sentence ("As a professor at Cal State Northridge, I know all about..."). She complained about how stupid her students were...especially an old man of 66 who'd decided to go back to college.
"I can't imagine why. I can't flunk him. College professors can't flunk anyone nowadays. Especially an old man. So, you know what I do instead...I give him the exact same grade every time: adequate." She snickered. "When you consistently mark someone adequate, believe me, college professors know just what that means."
Her friend repeated, "Adequate! He's merely adequate!" as if it were an especially funny punchline.
Just then, a man representing the theater came onto the stage (which was actually the floor). "We invite you all to join our mailing list, or even better, our email list. We're using email much more than snail mail nowadays."
The woman behind me stage-whispered, "Because it's cheaper." She seemed miffed that this man had interrupted her and wanted to put him in his place.
Labels: college, grades, los angeles, old ladies, people, professor
posted by Unknown @ 12:20 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
What a wonderful conversation to overhear. If I were 66, and attending college, being rated as "adequate" by some self-important twit professor would be just the encouragement I would need to pull no punches in the in-class discussion, or the student evaluation.
Oh, let's face it: I would never refrain from pointing out the inanity of a young college professor, or an old one - who thought so much of themselves as this windbag seemed to do...
And who cares what any OTHER self-important educator at Cal State thinks about him when he is 66?
You retain the reader's sympathy and favor by revealing so little of your thinking. I imagine you are filled with contempt for so many of these people, but you never say so.
Good for you.
The writer reveals all of her thinking by revealing the story
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