I decided to pick up some classes at Georgia State last fall and have slowly been plugging away with a few courses every semester. It seems that now when the pressure is off I feel that what I’m learning might actually be of some use to me and studying for exams is becoming a little easier now that the tuition bill is in my name.
Night and early morning classes seem to be the full time working students schedule, and it being a summer as well, most of my classmates this semester are a bit older than during fall and spring. ”If I had to describe my perfect day it would be….” Yesterday in my English Composition class this was written on the dry erase board when we walked in. Subtle but noticeable sighs were shared as everyone assumed what was to be our first assignment of the evening. The intro line sounded like an essay topic from 5th grade and I was a bit surprised our professor would bring this into a college level course. Ah.
But teachers of course always do have something up their sleeves. Sensing our confusion she immediately ignored the board and continued with something else. We spent the next few hours focusing on our research paper that would be due at the end of the semester, per the schools curriculum. We took some time to go over annotated bibliographies and where to put the indents, and how to site a source. All the time in the back of my head I’m anticipating the assignment looming on the board. I mull over what exactly would make a day perfect for me, who would it include, where would I go, what would I do? Does she want this to be realistic? How many paragraphs do I need to write? How can I make a thesis statement out of this? Is this going to be another essay?
It’s not even on the syllabus. Which I have found to be the over ruling law to any course here at GSU. If it’s not on the syllabus, it’s not legit. Towards the end of the evening I assumed that there wasn’t enough time for us to fit in our extra activity on the board and was prepared to add it to my list of home assignments. With five minutes left, finally a hand in the back shot up and inquired why we haven’t been given instruction on the additional assignment. Prepared for the question, our prof smirked and let us know that we had most likely already completed it. There are few chances in our busy lives with work, school, family and life in general, she explained, that we get the time to let our minds wander into ”what if”. With out direction she had given us a few hours to stir up an ideal day.
She then told us to strip our concerns of deadlines, word counts and grammar and take what we have thought up home with us and into our work and other classes. Teaching from a curriculum can get as boring for those teaching as it is for the class. And if she could help us add a bit of creativity into our daily thinking, she’d gladly confuse us for an hour or two. It may seem cheesy and an attempt to let us “search our souls”. But while walking back to the parking garage I didn’t hear rumblings or sighs of annoyance about the subliminal assignment; I heard – “mine would be a sunny day at the beach with a margarita” “a shopping trip to NYC” “a babysitter”. Doesn’t it feel good to think like a 5th grader? – one able to drink, shop and need a babysitter.
-Melissa