Recent Comments

1. about 11 years ago on Basic Instructions

   In Junior High School, I had a teacher who assigned Dune to our honors English class. I couldn’t stand reading it but plodded along. Apparently, my dislike for the book was shared by others, because the average test scores quickly plummeted. He complained about it often and even implemented daily pop quizzes, but he just couldn’t get the class to keep up with the readings, and I eventually stopped reading the book, too. Then one day he walked into the class and told us that he was collecting the books because it was clear no one was reading it. “I thought you guys would really like it,” he added with a hitch in his voice. He offered to allow any student who wanted to continue reading to hold onto it and a few did, but I felt that they only did it out of pity or to curry a better grade. I felt sorry for him, but I still find it a little strange that he was so attached to such an awful, boring book as to get that hurt by our disinterest.