Thursday, January 13, 2005

Surprise

Say you were asked by your boss to give a presentation touting all that was good and wonderful about your company. Say you had several meetings going over what would be said and exactly what talking points you should cover. Say you had practiced your presentation several times so you would be sure it went smoothly.



Say the day of the presentation you decide -- at the last minute without telling anybody -- that you were going to talk about something else ... try something new ... you know, just to see how it goes.



What do you suppose would happen next?



Now suppose you are a voice teacher, going over final exam performances from the previous semester. Suppose you have a chat with a student who decided the day of the performance -- at the last minute without telling anybody -- that they were going to sing things a different way ... try something new... you know, just to see how it would go. Suppose you try to explain several different ways your stern admonition: Do Not Surprise The Teacher. EVER.



Suppose the student told the teacher it wasn't that bad, and then proceeded to offer their uneducated, unwashed, undergraduate opinion that the teacher should lighten up.



What do you suppose would happen next?



I don't know. Yet.



But I'll be sure to tell you all about it when whatever happens, happens.



Silly, Silly students.

6 comments:

mensch71 said...

Methinks ScottishU is going to be short one student next year. Pray tell me that it wasn't one of my crew.

TV Junkie said...

Obviously, this student has never heard of ... VOLCANO.

Mike said...

Obviously this student has never heard the axiom.. the instructor is always right.
I think you should fail this student. Tell them they were creative.. but at the wrong time. And then remind them that artistic freedom comes at a cost and this time it was a failing grade. In the real world it would cost them *gasp* money.

Sarah said...

Maybe this is how a student removes him/herself from the gene pool creatively.

Mrs. Wonderful said...

This is like the writing student who has "worked" (read: attended class and googled his/her paper topic) on, let's say, the new food guidelines which include 90 minutes of exercise for people who want to lose weight. Topical and already approved as "acceptable" by the instructor.

And the paper is handed in. The topic? Steroid abuse among athletes, including scientific surveys of *over* eight people in the dorm hallway. "Steroids are bad and stuff."

I feel your pain.

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