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I think the most likely explanation for this story is that the students thought the professor was asking a trick question, so no one wanted to raise their hand.

I think the most likely explanation for this story is that the students thought the professor was asking a trick question, so no one wanted to raise their hand. I went to high school and university in Georgia (our high school graduation rate and quality scores consistently rank in the bottom half of states). I have never heard of an English class where the students "Listened to records, watched videos, talked about movies and current events" and never had to write an essay.

jschwartzi 9y ago
Or nobody wanted to respond to the professor contemptuously ridiculing their grammar skills. Students can smell it on you.
gizmo686 9y ago
In my experience, "English" classes is a broad catagory that refers more to literature (broadly defined) then the language. Granted, in my highschool practically every class involved essays, but my movies "English" class didn't involve any more than my math classes did. (Admittedly, I do not know how to compare the length of a math paper with the length of an English paper). >I think the most likely explanation for this story is that the students thought the professor was asking a trick question, so no one wanted to raise their hand. This example reminds me of my syntax (linguistics) proffesor, who would frequently ask "are people not answering because they don't know, or because it is obvious". It also froze me for several minutes as I tried to figure out what is going on with cats/cat's/cats'. (I gave up because I cannot figure out how I pronounce cats'. There is either nothing weird going on, or some weird morphology).