Philosophy - Or Why You Don't Take Classes With Your Husband!

4/2/2014

Once upon a time, there was a young man and young woman who didn't have much money.  But, the young man was a Veteran and the Government would give him money to take college classes to continue his learning, even though the young man already had a college degree.

Both of the young people decided that "free" money would be handy, so together they signed up for classes that they would take together.  Sounds blissful, doesn't it?  In truth not so much!

One of the classes the young people took was Philosophy that was taught by a wizened old woman (or possibly a witch).  The young people sat side-by-side during class and listened intently (at least one of them did) and that same person took copious notes during the lectures.  That person (who shall remain anonymous) went through multiple notebooks while her (oops I gave that one away didn't I?) partner sat, stared off in space and doodled!

Then during one of our tests, the young woman was busy tackling the questions when the young man continually hissed questions to her about what the answers were!  Occasionally, the teacher would look up and give the young people the "evil eye" - I think she knew that one of us, and I'm not giving out any names, was copying!  And boy was she right.

Ah, then we came to the final exam which was to be done at home.  The young people were to write about two philosophers and compare them for similarities, etc.  Obviously, one young person got right to work on writing the essay.  Remember, this was before computers so everything was handwritten, and if you messed up, then you had to rewrite the page.  Argh.  

The other young person didn't have a thought in his (oops) head about any philosophers and so the young woman wrote his essay as well.  It was hard enough coming up with one philosopher but there was an added burden when the young woman had to write about a second one.  Let's face it, for most of us, philosophers and their studies are Boring (with a capital B).  

The couple submitted their final exams to the teacher and here's what she wrote on the woman's exam: "Mrs. Bassett, it didn't behoove you to copy off your husband's paper".  I saw red immediately!  Copy off his paper?  Seriously? He hadn't had an original thought through the entire class.  We took the class only because the Government paid Veterans to continue their education, and we needed the money.

The only thing I took away from the class was a quote from Rene Descartes - "I Think Therefore I Am".  And it literally was the ONLY thing I took away from the class. What did the young man take away from the class?  That COPYING resulted in a lower grade, at least for me!

P