The boys developers in the band back row.
When I went back to college at the age of 50, my beloved cuzzint Pooh of Regenaxe said, “sit in the front row!” Er, okay, Pooh. You have to understand that my cousin Pooh did a school prodject (intentionally misspelled) involving a prime number sieve in about 5th grade. And then went on to get all kinds of wonderful (and deserved) scholarships and I think she was even a Rhodes Scholar or something like that. The important fact here is that she is VERY smart! Okay. Sit in the front row. Me? I was always a kind of a back row type of college kid. Er, don’t call on me, can’t you see I am, oh I dunno, deathly ill or heart-broken or my grandmother just died, or some other sort of weird situation is going on that I am involved in that is too important for me to participate in class. Sigh. My life was really never that dramatic. Oh, maybe the heart-broken thing happened a few times and my grandmother did die while I was in college but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Anyway, I never actually *used* any of those excuses. I just hoped that the tragical expression on my face would make the profs too sympathetic to whatever plight I was going through to call on me. JUST DON’T CALL ON ME, OKAY?!?? Yeah, I know. What *was* I thinking?
When I went back to school at 50, I walked into my first class (five minutes late because of freeway backups and you have to know that I *never* took the damn freeway to school again and I was *always* there early enough to sit around and check my email, etc.). Anyway, I walked in — late — and I swallowed hard and sat in the front row!!! And that’s where I stayed throughout community college. It took a while before I actually participated actively in classes. You know, shouting out answers and obnoxious opinions and stuff. I got better at it though and I can now lead meetings and presentations and things with a minimum amount of stress. Honestly, all those years reading books to children has helped with that more than anything…
This has been a weird week at work with a company picnic on Monday and an intense training session about banking and financial stuff all day yesterday and today. This session was very informative and the teacher was great! He obviously knew his stuff and handed it out to us with much humor and real-world examples. I didn’t sit in the front row this time. I sat with the folks that I work with the most. After all, we aren’t being graded on this stuff, it’s just in-service training and a lot of it doesn’t even directly relate to my job but it is sure nice to know the framework surrounding what I do. And nobody called on me although I did venture to offer opinions when I understood the material enough to actually have an opinion.
So, the back row (behind me) both days was filled to overflowing with male software developers, young and er, not-so-young. Whaddup??
June 17th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Well, I don’t know why–but at most staff meetings or inservices, it’s always the jocks, er coaches (mostly male) who sit in the back. I hate being late to anything!!
June 18th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Just a couple of corrections, before my head starts swelling like a helium balloon. The prime number sieve was a high school project, required by Mrs. K., who then suggested that I enter mine in the Science Fair (Math Division). I did have a MSU scholarship, but not a Rhodes Scholarship. With a Rhodes, you get to go to Oxford, but you also need to participate in college sports. Those of you who know me can just try and picture me as a college jock! ROFLMAO!!
Regarding the front-row advice… I’d heard that kids (K-12) do better if they sit in the front rows. Basically it appeared that there was a correlation between grades and closeness to the teacher. Now I’ve always been placed near the front, b/c I’ve worn glasses since 1st grade. Also, when I took geology as a “non-traditional”, (i.e. OLD), student, I had to sit in the back once b/c I came in late. It was harder to hear and to see the professor, and I found that I was less focused as a result. [Snarky comment alert] I was more focused than the “eraser head” students who always sat back there. That was our name for the students who had skater haircuts, with the top bleached blond.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I have a friend in CA who had to go to Traffic School. I think it’s an 8 hour day that you have to pay to attend to avoid points on your license or a ticket or something. She’s approximately 50. She sat in the back row with a bunch of teen age boys and had a great time!
On the other hand, her husband also had to attend at a different time and did not sit with the fun kids in the back. He did not have a great time.
Moral of the story – sometimes you should sit in the back, and sometimes you should sit in the front.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I have to sit in the front row because I am too easily distracted. 2 days ago I arrived at class dripping wet because my umbrella would not work and I was caught in a terrential downpour. I handed in my homework, got it back yesterday and it was marked late. :(. My professor is very rigid and it is her way or the highway. With that said, I am going to try to get her for anatomy in the fall. Even though I may not embrace all of her anal ways, she has taught me well and I have learned much over the last few weeks.
Side note: I really came on here to remark about one of the pic frames from the cottage today – are those peacocks that I see up at Houghton Lake?//
June 21st, 2009 at 11:10 am
I got labeled a “screen hanger” at my most-recent job’s training sessions. Meaning, I’m like that ol’ farm cat that knows when it’s dinner time and is not just *at* the door, but HANGING from the screen. AKA… I tended to be the “eager answerer”, so I learnt to slap a hand over my mouth for a few seconds to give the others a chance. Doing the same in Anatomy 350, speaking up after those few seconds when I *do* have the answer or comment or standing up to let the Dr. cut off the circulation to my right hand to demonstrate to the class the fact that the Ulnar & Radial arteries back each other up in providing bloodflow to the hand (gotta love those redundant systems)