Deja Stu pid

Me, I'm talking about me.

It happens. With five Composition I classes, inevitably I have a case of deja vu from time to time. Sometimes that sneaky suspicion that I am repeating myself can be traced to the fact that I have said it all before in another class. Sometimes it could have something to do with the fact that I did it a year ago or a semester ago. Sometimes it has to do with the terrible truth that I did in fact cover this lecture the last class period with the students I am talking to. But they will never tell. Did you hear that? They will never tell.

It happened today. I was going over memoir writing with them when the deja vu hit me upside the head like a rock tossed from a kid throwing at cars. "Have we done this already?" I asked. No one answered. Then I saw the slight grin of a back row student and realized that once again they were going to let me do the whole thing all over just to waste some class time. Yeah, it has happened before but only a few times, like twelve of fifteen.

Don't give me advice. Don't tell me to write everything on paper and look at it before class. That is far too practical, and I am far from a practical person. Besides, I like to be able to shift gears with passing whims. It's more funner that way or at least more fun.

Sometimes I will ask them up front, "Have we done this?" The answer is always the same, "No." But a look at the faces in front of me will often yield a different result. There is usually someone who doesn't have a good poker face and who lets the truth leak from of his or her expression.

When will students change? When will they want their money's worth? Maybe if they actually paid money for their classes they would be concerned about value. But that will never happen. Education is the one thing where people do not want their money's worth. They want it easy or they want to do nothing at all.

Sigh.