Sounds like a few of my grad school classes
(same prof) at the U. of Chicago some years
back--except for the standing at attention and
yes sir bits. No kidding. Questions by rows.
Paper assignments went by rows too. First
person got one of sixteen choices. Last one
got one of one. I was next to last. Some of
you might know the prof's name. He wrote
quite a bit about Mark Twain, Murrican
humor and such.
Hal
"A rose by any other name is a rose by
any other name is a rose by any other
name is a rose by any other name."
--Gertrude Shakespeare
(oft. attrib. to Wm. Stein)
Halvard Johnson
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On Sep 28, 2007, at 11:31 PM, Jon Corelis wrote:
> A long time ago I read somewhere the following story, told by someone
> who had taught English at West Point.
>
> In the time of this story (I'm not sure if it's still the same,) the
> method of instruction at West Point classes was that the professor
> would call students in turn in class. The student when called would
> stand at attention and the professor would ask the student a question.
> When the question had been answered and discussed, that student would
> sit down, and the professor would call on another.
>
> Well, it seems that at one point the class were studying Keats's "The
> Eve of St. Agnes," and the professor, wanting to be sure that all the
> students at least understood the narrative, was calling on each of the
> students in turn, asking each of them to describe in their own words
> what was happening in the poem.
>
> About halfway through the class, the professor called on one student
> who stood to attention and said, "Sir!" The professor asked him to
> please tell the class, in his own words, what was going on in the
> poem's 23rd stanza. The student said, "Sir! As the woman entered the
> room, simultaneously a large South American mammal exited through the
> door, Sir!"
>
> The professor, unable to credit his hearing, asked the student to
> repeat his answer, and it was the same. "And how," asked the
> professor, "did you arrive at that interpretation?"
>
> "Sir!" answered the student, "I verified the animal's name in a
> reference book, Sir!"
>
> The first line of stanza 23 of Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" is:
>
> "Out went the taper as she hurried in ..."
>
> --
> ===================================
>
> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/
>
> ===================================
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