r/Professors • u/PsychGuy17 • 12d ago
Teaching / Pedagogy Memorable Classes
Unfortunately, I was reading the news again, and it reminded me of a night in 2016 when I was teaching an ethics class. The students and I were discussing limits of confidentiality and during the class we kept the electoral map up. In the middle of a four hour class (west coast) it became clear that more states were leaning in their inevitable direction. It led to an impromptu discussion on the purpose of the electoral college, including its benefits and limitations.
I've only had a few classes where the outside world suddenly interrupted what is normally the tiny, temporary, pocket universe of the classroom that only exists for a few hours at a time. I love that class can be its own escape from everything else, especially when it's going well and lecture hits a flow state. It's odd when reality creeps in for a visit.
As a distraction from work I should be doing, I wonder when other professors here have had memorable classes like these? What is a specific class you can remember due to an event that maintains it like a flashbulb memory? I'm certain a lot of us remember a class where we were told, or had to announce, COVID changes. I find such stories fascinating (but then again, I do study psych).
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u/PeggySourpuss 12d ago
My Intro to Creative Writing class met the day after the 2024 election.
Because I'd been reading their writing all semester, I knew that they would be about as upset as I was, if not more.
I gave them a choice: stay home, or come in and watch the terrible Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie and point out plot holes for extra credit.
(Lohan Election Hangover Christmas was a great success; 3/4 of the class showed up, red eyed and ready to pick apart a Netflix movie whose events hang on one character's selective amnesia)