The thing that consoles me about the Bad Class is that next week I'll have half the class for my own project presentation. I figure that is an hour and 15 minutes, so I will talk for 30-40 minutes and then they can discuss/workshop/whatever my thing all they want in the remaining time. Oh the power. I will have a lovely handout, and copies of the poems and translations for all. I will stand up and give a Lecture in proper teacherly style. Unlike the prof who just sits there and rambles a little, vaguely, and then goes, "well, I dunno, or something, whatever, what do you think? " in a half-hearted way. And unlike the other students who are even more half-hearted. "I did this project and I guess it speaks for itself. I don't really have anything else to say about it." -- then some extremely bullshitty discussion.
The prof also said the last time he taught the class he assigned more theory of tr4nslation. And then people would try to write something using the theory of the week. And it didn't work too well. Well duh. Writing a little theory of the week project is obviously a dumb idea. but reading the theory is NOT a dumb idea. Nor would be some kind of assignment to LEARN some INFORMATION about the poet and their country and the literary traditions they are associated with. I'm still in fucking shock that this is not blindingly obvious to everyone.
Strikes me suddenly that sometimes you learn more from bad teachers than from good ones. In terms of ur-learning, that is.
Posted by: Jo | April 29, 2005 at 07:04 AM