The Fresh Wait

The other day I came upon my 10 am class. Ten is a little early, so I think mine is the first class of the day in that room. I round the corner and see my students, those who arrived on-time that is, milling about outside the classroom. This is unusual. Most students enter the room and grab a seat and patiently text their friends waiting for the professor to arrive. So I saw the students standing outside the classroom and thought, "Shit, the room door is locked."

Professors do not have keys to the rooms. Most have a Marlok card which provides entry into “tech” rooms; those with overhead projectors and computers. This classroom is not one of those. So I start thinking whom do I call, but then I remembered that these students were freshmen.

So I approached the darkened classroom and opened the unlocked door and invited my students in. The first student had arrived to find a darkened classroom and assumed it was locked. The next one assumed the first one knew that they room was locked. And on and one went this, until I arrived. Replete with experience and education, I first tried to open the door before assuming it was locked.

I almost certainly can guarantee that had my class been an upper division course, in other words with sophomores, juniors, and/or seniors, they would have tried the door first. But that’s what makes freshman so adorable sometimes. They can be like little puppies; awkward and clumsy, but eager and alacritous and not always thinking before acting.