It’s Week 2, and I’m Ready to Quit

hey teacher, by gpt

They sit and stare at me with dead eyes and blank faces, like a mirror reflecting nothing but emptiness back at me.

We watch a 3 minute video of Noam Chomsky explaining his view of what it means to be truly educated. Chomsky says, to be truly educated means “the ability to inquire and create constructively, independently, without external controls.”

It’s not difficult stuff.

It’s 3 minutes long, a brief summary rather than an in depth analysis, and yet, when I ask them: “In your own words, what does Chomsky say it means to be truly educated?”

Crickets.

I ask the question again, and wait.

A student in the corner raises his hand and says: “Can you repeat the question?”

I say: ““In your own words, what does Chomsky say it means to be truly educated?”

People are looking away now, at their phones, at the blank wall, staring at their feet or hands, anything to avoid looking at me.

A unserious little girl, a high school junior in a college class, begins to smirk and her friend next to her joins.

I say: “I can wait. We can wait. We have 75 minutes to answer this question.”