My goal this term is to make one intelligent, non-obvious comment. This used to be easy for me; it wasn't long ago — in fact it was last term — that I had no difficulty making useful contributions to the discussion.

Did one of the drinks I had during Xmas break kill some crucial brain cell? Curse Famous Dave's and its cheap, pumpkin-flavored beer!

I've come to realize that I was spoiled last term, with three enjoyable small-group classes. If there are too many people in the classroom, as is all too often the case this term, I start spouting all kinds of gibberish.

Because of course I have to speak.

The only classes I can remember being quiet during have all been ones where I felt out of my league. There were countless science classes (I think I was a sophomore in college before I realized that I'd never been that great at science), several intro classes that were outside of my competence area but seemed interesting... and one eye-opening term of Calc II.

Did you know that math people have to do homework every day, and, more often than not, they don't get any points for doing it? It's not a discipline for highly rational procrastinators like Our Bold Hero.

It doesn't help that half the time other students are saying things that are wrong wrong wrong. The old Dan would just call them on it, savoring the opportunity for argument, but the new Dan has read a handout in "Teaching in the Community College" about Students Like Him, and the new Dan, after finally finishing that sociology paper, has only just caught up to the rest of the class in the course readings.

At first there's the moment of frustration and inarticulate objection. Our Bold Hero furrows his brow, flips a few pages back in his notes, tries to remember which of today's readings had that one quote.

On the off chance that he gets this far, he then slowly formulates a question, trying to phrase it in a way that doesn't make him look like a fool or a blowhard (I actually said "As I recahhhhhll..." in class today: swing and a miss) before raising his hand.

The window for my comment has usually passed by this point, but the one good thing about classes this large is that someone else usually has a similar opinion. These are smart people, perfectly capable of dealing with the situation should I prove unfit to fulfill my contrarian duties.

I nod emphatically while someone makes (roughly) my point for me.

So. I need to say something intelligent, before I stop believing. I'd almost prefer my previous education-related malady — failed attempts to make jokes which, if not understood as jokes, cast me in a very negative light (e.g. no matter how late in the term, you can NOT jokingly claim that you're "too drunk") — to this continuing dumbness.