Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Finals Week

The reason people become professors is to be on the other side of those dreaded final exams.

Not really. They are a huge pain in the derriere for us, too, although the students are not sympathetic to our plight.

When students ask me for help on a homework, my first response (which I try to keep to once per student, lest I be viewed as senile) is "If I knew how to do it, then I wouldn't be asking you." Then I help.

Inevitably, as I am passing out a test, some student will ask "How is it?" I will always reply with a deadpan "Man, I'm glad I don't have to take it."

Strangely this always breaks the ice. I am reminded that Johnny Cash always claimed that the songs his legions of incarcerated fans enjoyed most were not the songs of freedom, songbirds, and blue skies. No, they liked the songs telling of the prison inmate's gloom and despair.

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