I went for my class yesterday and today morning, unceremoniously dropped it!Why?First of all we were only 4 people in the class an arrangement that I abhor.As a young lad I hated private tuition, all that attention on me for close to 3 hours?Hell no!Then to make things worse I was the token black man there add to that my foreigness.I know being the token black man is an inevitabilty esp in grad school (post material for another day) but as long as it is a mid-size to large class I don't mind.
Add to the fact that contrary to what most ladies say about men is that I multi-task and in fact thrive on it.If you want me to do one thing only and concentrate on you, you have 45 minutes to take your best shot after that all bets are off and you have to fight other contenders ranging from the back of my hand to the copy of New York Times that I carry to my lectures or the occasional power nap.Some of my best work is done when doing other things in the background and when I want to remember important things I simply think about other things.So the conference style seating was not going to work for me, a man has to be able to attend to his own devices without fearing a withering stare from the proffesor.
Add to this the fact that the proffessor said that it would be a discussion class, if it were a teaching class I would have agreed but discussion class with the compostion of this class?I think not!I mean the other three were 2 white women and one white man all full term Georgia residents.That level of homogeneity in the demographic does not provide for a wide vista of opinions at all.This opinion was vindicated when they started cackling at the break like they were at a PTA meeting or neighbourhood bbq.I would rather fade out inconspicously in a large class then stand out conspicously with no escape route.
Also the professor would not shut up!If you have read my blog you would think that I suffer from extreme verbophobia and would rather live in silence.That is not the case I have sat through long and tortuous lectures but this woman in my opinion was doing more talking then teaching, a few anecdotes are welcome but I dont much care about tales of the lives of your grandchildren and you relating them to this course in some obscure way; three anecedotes are more then enough.
Last but not least, never patronise the Acolyte.She tells us how we will have to be doing chapter and article reviews then turns to me with a smile and saccharine dripping from her voice
"Acolyte, do you think that you can handle that?"Even if I am an international student, she knew that it was my second sem of grad school and if I could make the grade that should have said enough,secondly I doubt that her wide assed narrow minded ass would know that the standards that I was subjected to as an 8-4-4 product are far higher then those that students here are subjected to and lastly I don't take kindly to those nursery school tones.She was damn lucky The Instigator was out of town, If you are going to insult me you might as well scowl,frown or do it with a straight face because I will still dislike you anyhow.
On the plus side I got another class with the prof who gave me and A last time and the class is much larger then last time so I got to read my New York Times,take a short nap alongside taking my notes and for once just listen without being asked to make an opinion.
Back to life as normal in Aco land!
