My Literature Class

“To get an A in this subject is easy,” I usually say this to my students in some classes of mine; such as Poetry Analysis Class because I recognize the tendency of many students not to like the subject although they majored in English Department. Some other subjects that are considered frightening by my students are Prose and Drama Analysis Classes, Introduction to Literature, and Methodology of Literary Research.

“Tell us how Ma’am,” one student asked me in the beginning of this semester.

“Read all the material I ask you to and get involved in the discussion in the classroom actively.” I answered.

“How about attendance in the class, Ma’am, is it necessary? Well you know, most of us are employees so that we often get office duties that will make us absent.” He continued asking.

“Well, actually for me your attendance in class is not really important. However, if you often skip classes, how can you get involved in the discussion? How can you get thorough understanding of the material we discuss in class?” I asked the class back.

The students just smiled.

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Frankly I often get disappointed with my students’ ignorance or laziness to read the material. This semester before the mid-test, we discussed TRAGEDY, and I asked my students to read OEDIPUS THE KING for one example of classical tragedies, and TRIFLES for one example of modern tragedies.

This evening was the last (third) meeting to discuss LYSISTRATA, one example of classical comedies. Due to the laziness of the students, we needed three meetings to discuss this comedy written by Aristophanes although it was relatively much shorter than OEDIPUS THE KING. Well, after greeting the students, reviewing what we discussed last week—about how Lysistrata convinced her Athenian and Spartan folks to agree with her idea to stop the war between Athens and Spartan—I gave the students one question to generate the discussion, “How did the sex-strike work?”

The class was quiet for almost 15 minutes. All of the students were busy reading, busy trying to find in which part of the drama they would find the answer of my question. It means they hadn’t finished reading the material before coming to class.

When the class was idle like that, I suddenly remember when I said, “To get an A is easy in my class.” How will they get an A if they are lazy to read the material? Moreover to get actively involved in the discussion?

And I was broken-hearted.

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