The People At My School ...

So for one day at least, Socrates and I could be friends. I made it nearly two weeks here without being called on, but my luck ran out yesterday in the class with my most intimidating professor. I knew I would be called on when he started going down my row, so of course for the 10 minutes before, my cold and sweaty hands could not type and my foggy brain could not concentrate on anything other than my impending humiliation. However, I luckily got an easy question (one the professor had warned us about no less) and I managed to say something that evidently made at least a shred of sense because he told me I got it right and moved on. I anticipate a nightmare speaking-in-class scenario somewhere in my future, but I avoided it for one more day ...

The same professor took a poll of my class (about 110 students) that showed some interesting information about the people at my school:

• 23 described themselves as "somewhat" or "very" conservative
• Only 1 viewed the country as "clearly headed in the right direction," while 86 found it "clearly" or "somewhat" headed in the wrong direction
• 107 expect their grade point average to be at least a B this semester (too bad they grade on a curve and this will be highly unlikely to occur!)
• 52 believe a woman should have a right to abortion in "all or almost all" situations
• If the 2008 presidential election were held today, 43 would vote for Barack Obama, 27 would vote for Hillary Clinton, 8 would vote for John McCain and 8 would vote for Mitt Romney. (No one else received more than 6 votes.)

So I expect to have some interesting discussions over the next three years ...