An Update on the Kiddies

This semester compared to last is absolutely fabulous. Even the losers in my sections don't lose as badly as the last semester crowd. Most people actually turn their work in! Holy crap! But even with "good" students, it's amazing how they will find ways to present their own set of problems. Some observations:

* I have a "super-keener." You know, that kid who always expects to get on the prof's good side, who jumps the gun with answers, who implies at every chance that you and he are better than "them," by which he means the rest of the class. Sigh. Sometimes a super-keener can be good, particularly if you need to jumpstart discussion. But for every other person who prefers more than half a second to think things over, he can be a real pain in the ass. Did I mention he's an English major?

* I have a super atheist. A self-proclaimed super atheist. Now, I'm as super-atheisty as they come, but someone forgot to send me the memo where we mutated into superheroes and were supposed to go around announcing it. The only annoying aspect of this is that she's managing to find a way to work disdain for religion into every one of her writing assignments. She's just as bad as Conservative Boy, who works God into every one of his writing assignments. I get it, you two. You feel strongly about something. Now try and have a different thought about something else.

* I think I'm developing a fanboy club. It's mostly boys. Every now and then I'll have a fangirl. But it's almost always boys. I've been studying this new phenomenon, and I'm not sure what to make of it. At first I thought it might be a "hot for teacher" thing. I've sort of ruled that out. They act more like they want to be buddies. I know what the teacher crush looks like by now, and that ain't it. Then I thought that maybe it was a healthy dose of "glossing." These boys are pretty smart--4.0's, mostly. I'm sure they want to keep them. They have big plans for the future. Why not buddy up to your teacher and make sure you get to keep your 4.0? But I don't think it's that either (although I'm keeping my eyes open).

Now I think it's a Mommy fetish.

Most of them have unresponsive/absent mothers. They're keen on getting praise for their work. I drove one to the student health place--which, as it turns out, was probably more "mothering" than he's had in ten years. I get their life stories, which tend to be full of drama and negligence. They ask for life advice. I'm pretty sure it's a Mommy fetish.

But God, they're cute. Who wouldn't want a cadre of cute little 18 year olds running around you? Their ideas are so stereotypical and not fully formed. There's plenty of things you can tell them for the "first time" and get to watch that wonder of discovery all over again. Batmite! schooled one on multinational corporations recently. It was a beauty to watch. And they're so full of fire. By the time they get to my age, most people are too busy trying to figure out how to afford material signifyers and have lost interest in Great Conversations and change. At this level, they're absolutely chomping at the bit.

I like them. I have a regular coffee meeting with one fanboy from a year ago. I like to think that those sorts of connections help them make something of life. Me and #1 Fanboy talk about his family life, his gf, his future, his classes, his ideas. I like him better than most people I know, even if he is 19. But at the least, he'll make a good first lieutenant in my growing ideological zealot army. If I could only figure out how to unleash them. Of course, they still have quite a bit of training to go through...

-- Virgil