His List of Discoveries...

My last day of class was Tuesday, and some people in the class had presentations to do. The guideline was: "presentations may be up to 20 minutes in length." This would imply to me that 20 minutes should be the MAXIMUM time someone should plan for.

At 8:50pm (the class ends at 9pm), the last person, let's refer to him as Mike, was up for his presentation. Given the time, the professor told him that he could feel free to shorten his presentation without penalty if he wanted...but if he preferred to go the full time, that would be fine too...those of us who could stay, would stay.

At 9:15 (so 25 minutes later), Mike was still presenting...and there was no end in sight.

He had literally given each of us a copy of the full research paper he was supposed to be presenting about and proceeded to enthusiastically share his views on life and his theories on nature...most of which, of course, were not related to the class.

He loosely followed a powerpoint presentation he had prepared and scribbled all over both of the white boards in the classroom. In the corner of one of the white boards, he created a "list of discoveries." This list was to represent new ideas and concepts that occurred to him during this impromptu presentation.

One such discovery was: "most people think in words; i think in movies"

Hmmmm.

At one point he asked us to put our fingers in our ears as tightly as we could. Upon confirming with us that the feeling was unpleasant and that it caused sound to be distorted, he enlightened us with theories of how ear problems in young children lead to our perception of disorganization in gifted kids.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Another discovery for the list: "organic = disorganized"

Mike went on to describe how nature is disorganized and how that was an organic way to be. He supported this point by explaining that indigenous people are also disorganized (which, as most of us know, simply isn't true...loads of archeological evidence exists of ancient organized society).

After about 45 minutes of brain dump (which, as you might recall, was supposed to be 20 minutes MAXIMUM), I found myself finally walking out of the classroom. I hit the street and started walking home around 9:40.

Sure, I could have just left early. Any of us could've. But we all stayed. I guess none of us wanted to be "that person." Although if you think about it...none of us wanted to be "that person" probably because of a desire not to look rude...but realistically speaking, "that person" would've actually been the class hero...cuz as we all know, once that first person is bold enough to get up and leave, it opens the door for others to follow.

Why didn't the professor intervene, you ask? No clue. Mike was REALLY enthusiastic about his presentation...perhaps the prof didn't want to be the one to stomp on that...maybe the prof was desperately hoping that one of us students would be "that person" so that he would be off the hook...who knows.

And yes...this craziness happened in my GRADUATE level course.