Has anybody ever irritated a teacher to the point of receiving more work? I'm sure most people have. But has anyone ever done it in eight words or less? That's what my ancient world class managed to do yesterday. We've been reading Antigone, which is the story of Oedipus's daughter (which, by the way, is a creepy story, so why are we reading it?) To summarize Antigone, her uncle the king gives an order not to bury her brother, but she disobeys, and most of the play is her dealing with that punishment. Anyway, before class we young adults were talking about Pirates of the Caribbean (that topic being brought up by something else fabulous, which I will share later) and the professor walks in, hears us, and scorns Pirates as "cheap theatrics." It's a relatively well-known fact that that professor hates computers, social networks, and any reference to pop culture. Yesterday being National Mean Girls Day, one of my classmates decided to further irritate the professor. She raised her hand and asked, "Have you ever seen the movie Mean Girls?"
The whole class burst out laughing, either because the question was so random or because everyone knows he's never seen Mean Girls. He was so irritated - or so amused, I'm not entirely sure which - that he told us to take out a piece of paper and write a 500-word essay about how Antigone is the original Mean Girl. Well - that was a surprise. And of course, half the class hadn't seen Mean Girls, so the question arose, what should they compare Antigone to? Somebody muttered "Twilight," who hadn't even read Twilight. Yeah, that really irritated him. He ended up saying any movie you want, and the majority of people chose Mulan. The upshot of it all is that we handed in almost-500-word essays comparing Antigone to something in pop culture.
Actually, if you really think about it, there are some resemblances between Antigone and Mean Girls. I'll tell you what they are if I get a good grade on that essay. I'm pretty sure the professor is laughing hysterically as he reads some of these essays.
And now, for the truly fabulous thing about yesterday: Professor Finnigan, who teaches Western Civ, handed us information about history classes we could take next semester. One of the options was Ancient Rome, which she is teaching. I think I'll take it because she is my favorite professor. But the option on the top of the sheet was - I kidd you not - a class about the history of pirates. (Get my pun? I kidd you not - Kidd you not?) Anyway, this class does not only talk about real-ish pirates like Captain Kidd and Blackbeard, but it spends some time on less-real pirates like Davy Jones, Long John Silver, and (Captain) Jack Sparrow. That's right - part of this class will include Pirates of the Caribbean! I am so taking that class!
Another advantage of this class is that it covers our non-Western history credit for a history minor, which is what I'm going for. It also only meets once a week, and it's an evening class, so it doesn't get in the way of anything.
Anyway, this is what we were talking about in Ancient World that led to the discussion of Pirates of the Caribbean. And I will be awake at midnight waiting to register for that class.
No comments:
Post a Comment