teaching

We were sharing teaching experiences. J had an interesting story to tell. She once taught a semester of Pre General Chemistry at a community college. A community college is halfway between high school and college in the US, comparable to a diploma college back home. And Pre Genchem is a course that is taken by people who want to go into things like nursing. J's class was full of mostly middle aged people. She walked in and said that she was the instructor. So all these people were amused at the sight of a girl, probably as old as their daughter claiming to be their teacher. Riddikulus! At first there was laughter all around. Then, when she walked to the podium and started pulling out the text, the laughter changed note and became somewhat nervous. And by the time she started, the class was deathly silent. As she told us, that first lecture was rather uncomfortable.

At the end of the course, she asked the students to give her some feedback. A forty something gentleman came up and said that he had THE suggestion to improve her teaching. Apparently, when she turned to the board to write, her shirt would ride up and show a leetil bit of skin which he found profoundly distracting. And his brilliant suggestion was 'Longer shirts!'