American Lit

Our first tests were brutal. I had no A's. I maybe had ten B's. What is so shocking is that most of the general population of students here don't study.

The test was a monster - seven pages - 50 multiple choice, 25 matching, 20 definition, and five essay questions. Most had no clue. And the maddening thing is that most of the questions were just checking for superficial knowledge - characters, authors, themes, and so on. Yet, many hardly tried.

So I warned my first American Lit class about their efforts. I said, "If this is how hard you work, don't blame me when you're trying to figure out how to run a cash register at McDonalds. I warned you to study. Don't blame me and please don't spit in my burger when I go through the drive through."

That, at least, got a few chuckles.