The One in Which I Get a Gift and Post a Retraction

Let's start with the retraction. I would like to take back ANY negative editorial comments I MAY have made about a certain English class I will be taking this semester. Leave it to Tiny Christian University to blow past my low expectations and deliver, once again, a wonderful class and dynamic professor to go along with it.

During my illustrious college career I have been in some version of ENG 111 a total of three times (clearly my LESS THAN illustrious grades dictated that I try, try again). This class is a requirement in every secondary institution across the country and it has standard assignments: The Persuasive Argument, The Bibliography, The Research Paper, The Letter, and The Autobiographical/Personal/"I"/Favorite Memory Story.

Wow. Thrilling. And let me tell you, learning the critical elements, proper structure, syntax, and purpose for each is so exciting that at times, I've been moved to tears.....TEARS OF BOREDOM!!! Dear god in heaven!

So why not get the required "C" grade needed to pass the class and have it count for graduation? BECAUSE I GET SO BORED I STOP GOING TO CLASS! I lose my desire to willingly subject myself to that sort of punishment and by that time it's so far past the deadline to drop, I figure I'm screwed anyway so I just stop attending. (I know. I know. My logic is seriously flawed but we're not discussing that in THIS blog!)

BUT!! I have reached ENG 111 Nirvana. The curriculum, although identical to the one I described above, has been re-written to apply to modern situations and applications. The Letter?? It's been changed to, "The Proper Letter AND Formal Email". The Bibliography? It's been re-vamped to include a one day lab that will help us learn how to evaluate whether or not a website or search engine is reliable AND how to document them properly.

AND THERE'S MORE! The prof is dynamic, and corny, and realistic, and demands deeper thinking and reflection, and is in touch with what is going on in the real world. It is so refreshing to have a professor that cares about not only his subject but his students' success as well. Not only that, but he walked into the classroom and told us he was going to give us a gift.

YAY!! PRESENTS!! I like him already.

Normally the first day of a class is best described as the "Square-Off and Spar" class. The students walk into the first class expecting two things, a thorough explanation of the syllabus (including, but not limited to, "How do I get an A?", "What happens if I don't show up?" and "How much is everything worth?"). They also expect to NOT have to write down a SINGLE note or lesson pertaining to that class. Our demands our simple and if not met, professors can expect lots of blank stares and awkward silences.

Professors (I think) approach the first class meeting a little differently. They want to finally put faces to the list of names they've had for a month now (and see if their mental images match with the actual images) AND they want to establish who has the control and how the classroom is going to run for the rest of the semester. Simple enough.

Professor English deviated from the plan! Sure he met our expectations, but by the end of the class he had students scrambling to borrow notebook paper from their neighbors because they had run out of room in the margins of the syllabus for all that he was saying to us. He had us answering questions!! He pushed us to fish for words, to struggle to describe thoughts and ideas, and demanded we think more critically than our foggy After Break brains would normally allow.

HE ACTUALLY TAUGHT ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS!!!! eep! :-0

The thing is, he did it so slowly and covertly that it caught most of us totally by surprise. I had a notebook open just because it's a habit and because it provides prime doodling space when the lecture turns dry. By the time the sound of students leaving classrooms reached my ears, I had taken a page and a half of notes! Granted he was only talking about how to effectively read a book, but I was so fascinated by his simple helpful tips, I would have been an idiot not to write anything down.

He took 10 of the 75 minutes to walk through the syllabus, and spent the other hour teaching. He taught us how to annotate, read actively, and gave us the lecture points needed to complete our first assignment. It all happened so fast!!

While we began filing out of the classroom, I heard a classmate say, "You didn't give us our gift!". Professor English just said, "Yes I did."

And yeah, he did.