As a card-carrying member of the Coalition Of English Dorks Attempting To Legimitize Their Choice Of Major By Sucking Up To Newspapers Through Summer Internships (COEDATLTCOMBSUTNTSI for short), I was recently asked to write an article that will appear in the early September edition of a northeast alternative newspaper as part of a special How to Survive College feature. My topic is: How to Deal With That One Kid In Your Class Who Swears He/She/Ze is Smarter Than Everyone Else and Has to Open His/Her/Hir Mouth Every Three Seconds To Prove It.
One could argue that my three years of completed higher education would serve as ample research for this article, but I thought I would turn to you, dear readers, for input. We've all had experience dealing with (or even being) The Classmate Who Didn't Know When To Shut It. In those situations, how did you succeed in shutting out the excess noise and getting through the class? Did you find any methods (doodling, leaving to go to the bathroom, excessive use of irony, getting in fistfights) that worked better or worse than others? Would you say that people who fall under the That Classmate category exhibit different behaviors in different settings (i.e. seminar, study group/TA session, lecture)? Comment here or email me at agreenberg01 AT wesleyan DOT edu.
Thanks in advance!
(Note: To the oh-so-eagle-eyed wise asses among you, no, the irony of this topic is in fact not lost on me, for the record.)
