Day One - After Class

I came, I saw, and I conquered. - Julius Caesar. I came, I saw, and I bored 'em out of their skulls. I met HIST 1302-004 at 9:40am in LIB 16. There were 33 diverse (!) names on the first-day roster. 29 students showed up for the FIRST WEEK of class. In a summer term, each class meeting is nigh unto a week. As Muhammad Ali loved to say, I pity the fools! Those 4 are well on the way to roadkill. It is not unknown to me - after 31 years at Amarillo College - that any number of those students will remain on the class roll at the end of the term and receive an unearned F in the course. Sometimes I feel as if I work in a meatpacking plant, just puttin' 'em down, one after the other. After approximately two hours of talking about the course and demonstrating WebCT, I got zero (0), zip, zilch, nada when I asked for questions. I asked a student up front, Do you know the school yell at AC? Of course, I got a blank stare. Then I asked, What is the school yell at Texas A&M? Several answered: Gig 'em! (Whatever the hell that means.) Then, I asked, What's the school yell at UT-Austin? The immediate answer: Hook 'em! Then I said, What's the school yell at Amarillo College? More silence. I said, Here it is! accompanied by a monumental shrug and a What, me worry? expression. Followed by uneasy laughter. It's going to be a looooooong summer term. Stay tuned.