Monday, January 25, 2010

you're kidding, right?

First day of classes went well. Except for this:

I was going over the syllabus and explaining how to login to the course website, and when I told them the password for the course was "Haiti," at least 40 of the 140 students raised a hand simultaneously.

Their question? "How do you spell Haiti?"

Unbelievable.

3 comments:

rented life said...

So I thought of this post the other day. I open with Pictionary for an ice breaker. One card says "Atlantic Ocean." Student frantically pulls me aside and says "I'm like not good with geography and stuff, where is that?" I said "our side." (thinking she confused it with the Pacific...) "But WHERE? Is it like by a river or something? I don't get it."

OMG. She's a college senior.

auto ethnographer said...

Wow. That does takes the cake; must have been difficult to keep a semi-straight face.

rented life said...

It's a moment when you just are speechless. Who is to blame?

My first thought when I was able to think again was "what else is lacking and how will that impact the class?" I found when they turned in their in-class writing that half the class (and again, it's all juniors/seniors) can't write sentences.