Thoughts from the First Day

First, to give you an overview, I slept 12 hours last night. 12 hours. Felt AWESOME. But teaching wears me out. I'm waaaaaay too active.

A few moments using my beloved bullet points:

*Many of these kids have never had early modern history or lit, so walking into my class and hearing me blather on about the Tudors or the Reformation or Spenser or something-not-Shakespeare really really makes them nervous. I've never seen such outright terror on people's faces. I liked it.

*Responses to the question, "What makes this poem British?" in my intro survey course:
1. "It's in English." Yes, good call. Way to dig deep, cap-boy #1.
2. "It's written way better than anyone in America would write it." Certainly any American in this class. No doubt.
3. "It mentions towers. Like the tower of England." Well, you might not be aware, but there are other towers in the world. Like the clock tower where you'll find me later this afternoon with a loaded high powered rifle, for example.
4. "Americans don't call ladies their 'mistress.' Or at least they don't write poems and stuff to them. Having a mistress is bad, you know, but the British people call their wives that and stuff." Cap-boy is on a roll.

*Response to my questions, "What do I mean when I say 'medieval'?"; "Who can tell me about King Arthur?"; "Who is Elizabeth I?"; "Who is Petrarch?"; "Tell me about Troy"; "What does India have to do with Britain?"; and "Why the hell should we read all these dead white British guys at all?"
1. Crickets
2. Crickets and a murmered "something about knights."
3. "A queen!" Oh, no, actually, I'm Meg XVI. Anyone can get a number.
4. Crickets
5. Crickets and a questioning, "trojan horse?"
6. Crickets
7. "Because they teach us about ourselves!" Oh, are you a dead white male aristocrat? I didn't realize! Or is that just your goal? It's good to have goals! Now get a new one.

Actually, it was a blast. Some of my students are hilarious, some are very bright and just need to be fed, some were surprised by my public shaming of their ignorance, and some are in for a loooooong semester. But it was good. Really really good.