Thursday, August 04, 2005

From the other side of the desk.

I'm teaching GRE classes at night these days. (Ah. Mortgage.) And I feel the need to vent about Tyler-who-should-rot-in-hell.

TWSRIH reminds me very much of a college friend I had. Lots of people called my friend "Jesus Boy," because he was short and skinny and pre-Raphealite-looking with long hair and a long beard. (We once performed a very elaborate prank where, in the middle of the campus tree-lighting service on the lake, we floated a standing Jesus Boy across the lake on a low raft. He used my sheet for a loincloth. I didn't ask for it back.)

Anywho, Jesus Boy is now an off-and-on Grad student. That TWSRIH is taking a GRE class implies that Tyler ASPIRES to do what Jesus boy is doing, which is a whole new category of scary.

Jesus Boy was the man. He lived next door to the model room that the admissions office showed new students, so he put up signs on his door telling students why they shouldn't come to the school. When the college advertised for a new dean of students, he applied and asked his professors to write him letters of reccomenation for the job. During hurricaine FLoyd, he and his buddies tried to build a hanglider. I'm laughing just writing this remembering how cool he was.

Well, it turns out that when you're the teacher, having a guy like Jesus Boy in your class is a big pain in the ass.

Tyler, the Jesus-Boy-heir-apparant, took my GRE class last summer. At my testing company, we have a guarantee. If he still didn't feel ready after the first class, he could take it again within a few months. He didn't take advantage of the guarantee. He's paying for the class again, or rather, in true Jesus Boy fashion, his dad is.

I politely informed my center manager of this, suggesting that he might be happier in someone else's class. I mean, I'm a good teacher, but if my style of teaching didn't work for him, maybe he's happiest with someone else.

No, he LIKES my class.

So he's back for another six weeks, being a wiseass and yelling out all the answers he already knows since he TOOK THE SAME CLASS LAST YEAR.

It seems unprofessional to inform the class that he's a retread. So far, I've simply put up with him yelling out the point I'm getting to before I get a chance to make it, responding only by mildly advising the ladies in the class to not go see "The Crying Game" or "The Sixth Sense" with Tyler.

But grr he's annoying and so far not telling the class that the only reason he knows all the answers is that I told him what they were last year takes more self-restraint than CC is typically known for having.

CC
who, in hear heart of hearts, still thinks Jesus Boy was pretty cool.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If he was doing this in one of my classes, I'd probably mention it to the class. Doesn't strike me as unprofessional; you might even talk to him outside and encourage him to let other people respond to questions. I can get along with wiseasses and students who bug me personally, but I draw the line at any behavior that disrupts the learning of other students (and giving all the answers seems to fit, since it prevents others from being challenged). Then again, this may be different from teaching in a university situation, where I have significant power to discipline disruptive students.