Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Why I Love School

Occasionally, something happens in class that reminds you of why you're still okay with being in college. There are times when you get a paper back that you put not nearly enough into to deserve the grade you got. There are times when without any preparation you ace a class discussion. There are times when you are asked an essay question on an exam on just the topic you studied. And then miracles like the one that happened today happen.

Arriving a little late (thanks Sir Nukes the Not Gentleman for not giving me your spot in the elevator) for The Age of Satire, I took a seat at the front of the room and opened Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" for the first time. The fact that I hadn't ever read the play before was fine because my teacher's always off on one tangent or another so that it's easy to participate without having an prior knowledge of the text we're supposedly studying. So I participated. A lot. I did well.

Class nearly over, my teacher decided to hand back the midterms she had piled on her desk. The midterm I was barely prepared for. The midterm I wrote the dumbest essay I've ever written for. The midterm I surely failed.

Taking my blue booklet from my professor's hand, I noticed a big red-ink A with a circle around it. As if she had anticipated my disbelief, my teacher accompanied it with a, "Thanks for the truly excellent work, Dina! Please see my remarks inside."

My exhilaration was uncontainable and I couldn't help but smile before even leaving class. And for this I'm still okay with being in college.

4 original thoughts out there

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats on the undeserved honor. I got a B on a test in law school that i walked out of KNOWING I failed. The lesson, as always, teachers don't read your crap either.

G'mar chasima tovah.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 11:44:00 AM  
Blogger BrownsvilleGirl said...

Interestingly, she did read it. To the last sentence. I know because she commented through out and on the last sentence in particular. :)

It was just an essay, so that was my whole grade. :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 2:11:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Getting an A when you expect an F is like a 5 on a 5 to -5 scale, but getting a 64 on a chemistry test you were SURE you aced (which has happened to me) is like a -10 on a 5 to -5 scale. Very annoying!!!

Hopefully G-d spells your name correctly when he writes it in the Book of Life because it would be awkward if you had to correct him.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 8:14:00 PM  
Blogger MC Aryeh said...

I took a Literature & Film class in college just so I could see my favorite movie of all time (which has still not been released on its own on DVD). I only showed up for the class when they screened the film, to hand in my midterm paper (on two Chaplin movies I saw on video at home), final paper (on my favorite film and the one book I read for the class) and to show up for the final, which consisted of six essay questions, only one of which I could answer because the other questions had to do with films I had not seen/books I had not read. Not sure what I got on the final, but I received an A in the class, so either everyone else only took the class in order to see their favorite film and also answered only one question on the final, or else the papers (on which I got As) counted for way more than the final...I miss college that way...

Thursday, October 13, 2005 11:07:00 PM  

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