Saturday, February 12, 2005

Robert the Llama Butcher shares a tale of rebellion in the classroom from his high school days. It’s rather amusing, although the reason for his rebellion is not so amusing. His commenters share equally rebellious and witty anecdotes (myself excluded) - it’s sad that these people were not the norm in our public schools.

My favorite part of Robert’s story:

I, on the other hand, absolutely refused the assignment. It was, I believe, the only time in my entire academic career that I did so. When my turn came to give my presentation, I calmly stood up and announced that I didn’t have one. When asked by the teacher why not, I launched into something of a rant about how idiotic the whole business was and how I thought the purpose of an English class - particularly an advanced one - was to hone reading and writing skills. I also used the opportunity to briefly give my opinion of Mr. Henry David Thoreau, who I thought (and still think) to be nothing more than what P.J. O’Rourke called him - a sanctimonious beatnik.

When I had finished explaining myself, the room was a sea of stunned bewilderment, as if I’d just cold-cocked Mother Theresa.

That’s just beautiful. Heh.

My moment of academic rebellion came in my freshman year of college. I was taking the requisite Religion 101 (Introduction to the Old Testament) class (I went to a Baptist college) and my professor was teaching heresy, imho. His liberal theology was astounding to me and I refused to give him the answers that he wanted on the exams. Instead I gave him the correct answers.

An example of what he was teaching is the account of the parting/crossing of the Red Sea. The Bible says it was the Red Sea that the Hebrews crossed when the waters parted and then when Pharoah’s army followed into the Sea, the waters came back together and the army was drowned. My professor taught that it wasn’t actually the Red Sea that the Hebrews crossed, but rather a small creek to the south. To me it takes a bigger faith to believe that Pharoah’s army drowned in a creek, but I believe in the miracles of God. He’s way bigger than our little minds can fathom. I was bothered that some theologians were trying to box God into man’s limitations.

At mid-term, I discussed with my parents the idea of withdrawing from the class because I had an academic scholarship and I was afraid that a failing grade would jeopardize that small bit of financial aid. To their credit, my parents were supportive of whatever decision I made regarding the class. I decided to stick it out and for my troubles I went into the final exam with a low D.

The professor knew what I was doing and called me into his office on the last day of class. “All you need to pass this class is a D on the exam. You know this stuff, just give me the right answers,” he encouraged. “I can’t do that, Dr. Heresy. You’re teaching wrong theology,” I replied. I failed the exam and the class. And I did end up losing the scholarship after the next semester.

Anyway, go read Robert’s post. You’ll get a good chuckle.