Class
Last week was the first week of class. And it wasn’t hard at all.
The instructor is hyper, smart and enthusiastic. I like that.
What I don’t like is some of the people.
You can usually round out people in class into categories:
- Never talks. Holds up class while the instructor tries to get them to say their name during introductions.
- Don’t get it, never will, drag the whole class down. Actually heard this in class: “How do you find notepad again? How do you tile again?” Stop it. This is not an intro to computers class.
- Talks when necessary, intelligent.
- Annoying, know-it-all who might not actually know it all. Likes to derail class while demonstrating how annoying he/she can be.
A couple of old people holding us up didn’t show up for the next class. Unfortunately, the know-it-all did.
From my neighbor “I didn’t pay money to listen to this guy teach.”
Neither did I. I want to punch him.
And if he knows so much, why is he in the class? We were working on something entirely different when he interrupted to ask how to do something. The instructor wisely ignored him.
I think the instructor has been doing this long enough to deftly handle the know-it-all. “We don’t need to know that right now. That’s not important.” And sometimes he just ignores it.
I want to enjoy this class. It’s important to me. I’m going to have to ignore this guy and resist the temptation to punch him. Or even just shout, STFU!
You should punch him in the mouth, then ask him if he knew that was coming.
From a former teacher’s perspective, another problem with “old people” in class is that they can take offense at being graded or critiqued on their work. And they have a tendency to treat the teacher in a patronizing manner if the teacher is younger than them. That was my experience teaching adults on the college level. I’ll never forget the time I gave a middle-aged, ex-Navy man a poor grade on a composition. I’ve never seen a face that red and angry on a man in my life. He was literally trembling with anger when he came to see me in my office. He was definitely not used to having someone twenty or more years his junior in a position of authority over him.
I remember a guy from one of my history classes who used all sorts of big words that made him sound smart. It was really annoying. The professor must have been annoyed too, because he shot the guy down a couple times telling him he essentially didn’t know what he was talking about. It was glorious. :-)My high school history teacher hated it when people tried using big words. I will never forget him saying that the word ‘utilized’ is just a fancy way of saying used.
I say find out his email address and submit it to dozens of porn sites. That would be fun on multiple levels
I also like Heather’s advice.
I vote for Todd’s solution. Won’t get you locked in the pokey.