anecdote.
so. i'm mid-stride while teaching today. i've just posed a thought-provoking question about the relationship between fashion and language in conjunction with woolf's orlando. and one of my brighter students has her hand up to comment. i call on her and what does she say? 'i've been watching that spider?' (pointing towards the floor about five or six feet in front of her.) i look at the spider and say, 'huh.' she continues, 'it's crawling towards me.' i look at her quizzically and ask, 'do you want me to kill it?' she replies, 'yes please. i'm sorta arachnophobic.' at which point i squished the spider (which though unusually black was very small) and re-posed my question verbatim while the rest of the class contained their amusement so as not to embarrass the poor girl. and inside i was laughing, even if i was all business and fashion and orlando.
i admire that you didn't embarrass the poor girl. i totally would've ridiculed such a silly request. i mean seriously, you want your professor to kill a bug (technically an arachnid, i know) for you? i'm not belittling someone's arachnaphobia, but come on (gob bluth style)!
ReplyDeleteI actually admire your student. I would be thinking the same thing and it would just fester in me until the spider was close enough to kill or it turned and bothered someone else! love ya
ReplyDeleteOkay, that's awesome...and very nice of you to kill the spider.
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