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Show Coffee Drinkers Preferred Page 161 of 307 "It all makes perfect sense to me. If I had been in that class you would have heard no end of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Allen Ginsberg." "Exactly! These are college kids; they should have some passions or at least some interests!" The memory of all this never failed to frustrate me. N She nodded, "Amen, brother, you are preaching to the choir." "So Monday comes and here they are and I figure they are about to explode with rock heroes, great movies, awesome destinations. You know, anything they like. But guess what happens." "I have." -She lifted the piece of paper without showing me what she had written on it. "Nothing. They are still silent. So maybe this was a big mistake, in retrospect. But it's what I did. I was young and stupid. I'll never make this mistake again." "Oh, go on and quit apologizing. Tell me that you turned a fire extinguisher on them and that would surprise me." "No, I just let their silence sit around the room. I smiled. I did not get frustrated. I did remind them of what the homework was just so I could be sure I hadn't imagined asking them to come back with topics, and they answered that, yes, I had asked them to come back with topics, but then they were all just silent. Well, I went silent. My lesson plan depended on their contributing. So it |
