The Great Ganesha

And then there were six…

One of my students just dropped the class. A girl majoring in Dance, she somehow found herself in my class. Even though it’s a class for non-majors, the math is pretty hard for someone who cannot think quantitatively (think: most American non-math-major undergraduates). So I had my first casualty of the summer. She left, actually, because another opportunity came up for her, and she claimed that she found the class interesting. But I’m wondering whether she just said that to avoid offending me. At any rate, that’s that.

So now I’m teaching a tight class of six. Since I usually give an A grade to around 10% of my students, that means 60% of one student is going to get an A. Painful…for the student, I mean…

I know I said I would blog regularly about my teaching, but somehow with this class, there’s not much to say. Most of them are pretty well-behaved and disciplined. They answer the questions I ask them in class religiously. Well, they make honest attempts to do so, at any rate – which is all I can ask for. And they’re diligent. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to raise my usual percentage of A’s to 66.67%. In case you’re wondering, that’s two-thirds, which means four out of the six students in my class might get an A

So, that means there are two students who are still on the iffy side of things. One is an English major. And the other, well, she’s in class by herself (pun intended). She’s completely out of place there. She sleeps in class, rarely pays attention and is most likely going to fail – or come very close to failing. A Communications major, she told me she isn’t leaving the class because she will not get her money back if she does. So I guess she’s stuck and will be relying on my charity towards the end of the semester when she will both, literally and metaphorically, wake up.

This is a girl who’s a stereotypical American “blonde” with an all-pervasive sophomoric mentality. She’s the kind that you see on MTV’s Real World complaining about why XYZ didn’t lend them their shampoo when they desperately needed it for that important date. If you’ve even seen five minutes of the show, you know what I’m talking about. Take away the motivation of one those kids, and you’re left with my student. I mean, this is a kid who replies with a proud “I have no idea” when asked something I just talked about a few seconds ago. She constantly acts surprised and/or shocked at every announcement I make – but only on the third time I make it. I think she is the demographic they are aiming for when they try to market bottled water. She is the quintessential “dumb American”.

Well, perhaps I’m being a little harsh but that’s how she appears to me when she’s in my class. It would be interesting to see how she is in real life, or should I say the Real World ?

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