Thursday, March 15, 2007

Multiple Choice

men

On my way to bed last night I was trying to figure out a way of finding smarter men on CL.

Flashback 1998

The Town of Billy-Bob*, CA

I was taking a remedial US History course at a small, private, evangelical school in the process of earning my teaching credential. Although I attended a fancy Catholic university in the City, I hadn't taken the exact general ed course that specifically covered the US Constitution. I was the oldest student (23) in the class of college freshmen (average age, 18.5).

It was about as challenging as a good high school history class and I enjoyed the erudite teaching and the subject matter. What was painful was watching my fellow classmates struggle with very straightforward material.

The Treaty of Versailles

After the big midterm exam, Instructor D got up in front of the class, fighting tears, asked the students what the connection between The Treaty of Versailles and WW2 was. Ninety-five percent of the students missed that multiple choice question.** The silence was palpable. He visibly wilted as he surveyed the blank faces of the students. No one offered a response. My heart broke for D that day, no one deserves such a moronic class.

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The Versailles Winnowing Fork

Date: 2007-03-14 21:33:47
PostID: 294249435
Title: (women seeking men) Multiple Choice


What was one of the root causes of World War 2?

A) Winston Churchill
B) The Treaty of Versailles
C) United States imperialism
D) The Lend-Lease Program
Answer the question and include a paragraph to support your position. Spelling errors, grammar and mechanics will affect your grade.
------

Did you blink? It was only up for 8 hours before it was flagged down.

This may be my most popular posting yet. I included another fuzzy bathroom portrait.

131 earnest responses.
5 flames
0 penises

I lost count of spelling errors, but as my writing is rife with them,*** I didn't hold it against anyone. (i wanted to discourage that style of emailing where the writer strings a series of random thoughts together without any editing or punctuation...) The vast majority cut-and-pasted the same article from Wikipedia. I should have known that would be an easy thing to do. Still, it at least shows me that they are capable of simple research and using keyboard short-cuts.

What really impressed me (not your conspiracy theories, sorry, gentlemen) is how many thoughtful responses I got, and not a single penis (a record!)

Mea Culpa

Men of Craigslist, I underestimated you. I thought you were only interested in cute, easy girls, but you have shown me, as a group, that you can be interesting, sometimes witty, thoughtful, educated and polite. Far from being the dregs of society, you may be the very pinnacle of culture, the lions of education and noble leaders. I wish you all well in your search for love and companionship and I sincerely hope that you all find women worthy of your gifts and talents.

Bravo!

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*Will be getting its own Gazetteer entry shortly.
** Yours Truly was the only one who got it right. I am not crowing, this is a tragic thing.
***Thank you, El Cab, for catching my effect/affect mistake.

2 comments:

Shannon Marie said...

E) Henry VIII, right ? The cause of WWII was Henry VIII and the English Reformation.

I don't understand why all your CL postings get deleted...are they TOO clever ?

Carmen said...

That is what I like to tell myself.

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