Post date: Feb 17, 2010 8:53:23 PM
It's the worst case scenario. One guy to the right is drinking a Cola and staring blankly (perhaps longingly) at the door. Personally, I am amusing myself by taking interest in sweeping wrinkles of the overhead projector screen. Speaking of which, it's a real overhead, not an LCD projector. About half the people in the class brought a copy of the questions we are going over, and the sketches of price and demand curves on the board look more like modern art than anything else. Even the printout of answers for the test seems stuck in the past, printed in some ancient typewriter font with dashes and equals signs present to line things up and divide the page. There is but one paper taped to the wall. It's hung on a phallic structure which the paper labels "Momentum Probe". The most interesting thing in the room, and It's not even related to the class. There is a teacher, he's talking somewhere near the front of the room. I'll get to him in a moment.
So what is the use of a class? A class is a place to learn. A place where you gain knowledge in a formal environment and in such a way that it is a more efficient option than other ways you could learn the same material. Perhaps the most important factor in any class is how actually useful it will be in life. Anything can be useful. In music class in elementary school, I learned the names of the 50 states in America, I learned the proper way to shake a hand. In my introduction to materials and processes, I learned how to weld and solder, the kind of skills that will almost certainly come in handy one day when I want to fix something myself instead of paying someone else. A class should help you learn and make you think.
I did, however, say that I would get back to the teacher of that class I was talking about earlier. In an effort to save the class, the teacher decided it would be a good idea to amuse us with a story of two economists and poop. The story starts with two economists, creatively named "A" and "B" who have just finished eating dinner. The friends come upon two large poops. Economist "A" dares economist "B" to eat one of the poops for a million dollars, which he proceeds to do.
Now, at this point, one of the guys sitting next to me and I connect for a moment. Without so much as raising an eyebrow, we effectively communicate to each other something along the lines of "What is this shit?" I mean seriously, why are we talking about economists who eat poop?
It turns out after eating his dessert (the teacher was having trouble keeping the terms "poop" and "dessert" straight) economist "B" doesn't feel very well, so to get back at economist "A" he dares him to eat the other poop/dessert, and he'll give him back the million dollars, which he does upon "A" eating the second poop/dessert.
After a short discussion on GDP, I have learned a few things from this.
Other than that, I personally believe that poop is better flushed down the toilet.