LETTITOR

 

Second week of school. How
was your first? If it was anything
like mine you spent a lot of time
sitting around hearing teachers
recite their policies on plagiarism
(they’re against it). If you were
particularly unlucky, maybe you
even got one of those teachers
who tries to “liven up” the first
day of class by making everyone
play one of those god-awful
“icebreaker” games. You know,
the ones where teacher tells

you to go around the room and
find someone who has two left-
handed sisters or something,

but no one really wants to do

it, so you just sort of stumble
over to the least-nerdy looking
person and kind of grunt out the
question before the whole thing
either descends into idle starring

or empty gossip, depending on
which gender you are. Yeah, I’ve
had a lot of those in my day.

And don’t get me started
on teachers who make you do
actual work on the first day. Man,
where do they get off? Reading
the syllabus is enough mental
activity for one day, thank you
very much. We just got back
from summer vacation, give us a
break here.

But soon it will be the third
week, and then the fourth, and
then the seventh, and before you
know it it'll be exam time and
you'll be daydreaming about
Christmas shopping. That’s
just the nature of school. When
you’re not enrolled, a semester
seems like an agonizingly long
ordeal, and you dread the thought

of day after day of two or three
hour classes. But then once
you're in, time starts to be speed
by like a freight train on greased
rails and soon you’re wondering
how your sadistic teacher thought
12 weeks was even remotely
enough time to learn enough
about the Rennisance to write
500 whole words on relevance of
the printing press.

If you’re a newbie to Douglas,
don’t let these first weeks stress
you out. Try to get to know a
couple people in your classes so
you'll always have someone you
can discuss assignments with,
even if just for a few minutes
before the lesson starts. You
don’t have to become bosom
buddies, but it always helps to at
least know a few of your fellow

 

students by name. Refreshing
your brain by re-reading your
own notes after class is also a
good tip. It always surprises me
how many students spend all this
time carefully scrawling down
everything teacher says, only to
slam their book shut once class
ends and never look them again.
What’s the point? Lastly, when in
doubt, just plagiarize. I mean, it’s
not like teachers have a policy
against it or anything. That’s the
kind of stuff they’d be sure to tell
you on the first day...

J.J. McCullough
Editor-in-Chief
of the Other Press