The Three

Three people came to my class today. In other words, twenty people didn't bother. But I was (and am) surprisingly okay with that. I expected a small class, since this was the last day of classes before "Fall Break," and I had set the day aside for workshopping drafts of the essay they're working on. Only about 10 or 15 people came to our last couple of workshops, and those weren't on the day before a break.

But it turned out to be kind of a nice class. The four of us sat in a circle and after each of them read their essay aloud, we took turns giving feedback. And then I gave them each ten points just for caring enough about their writing to show up.

I wonder what it would be like if all classes were like that: small, intimate, composed solely of people who give a shit. Tuition would be insanely expensive, since the university would have to pay so many more instructors to teach those miniscule classes. But it might be worth it. Everyone in the class would actually be forced to think every day, instead of just piggybacking on top of the people who do the work and participate in class discussions. We might all be more intelligent, more capable people. Or we might all be incredibly exhausted from all that thinking. Hard to say, I guess.