During a lecture on the influence of media on teens, a typo in the PowerPoint presentation revealed the professor's true opinion. The title read "Three Reasons Teens Are Vulnerable Toads."
Dobler, Micheal. “True Feelings.” The Reader’s Digest.com. The Reader’s Digest, n.d. Web. 27 April 2010.
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This joke really stood out to me through its negative portrayal of the teacher. Rather than assuming the word "toads" to be a mere typo, the writer professes that it conveys the teacher's "true feelings."
ReplyDeleteThe student in this case was so ready to accept the worst of his teacher, so prepared to focus on flaws and shortcomings. Why?
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ReplyDeleteAs a person who is generally an optimist, I couldn't help but laugh when I read the joke for the first time. When teenagers are negatively portrayed, they are usually seen as angsty, stressed out, or overtired, and none of these qualities are usually associated with toads. When I read the joke again, I began to wonder what "toads" could've actually said but couldn't think of anything.
ReplyDeleteThe student in this case was probably ready to accept the criticism of the teacher because of the dynamic of the teacher-student relationship. For example, after handing in a major assignment or a test, students learn the material they hadn't mastered beforehand based on the corrections teachers make.
I completely agree. If the teacher was attempting to insult teens, he would have come up with something a lot better. Ageism offender: student.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mikaela that the author purposefully chose to use the phrase "true opinion" in their commentary on the occurrence. I think this might not be a portrayal of a teacher in a negative light, like Mikaela suggested, but rather very dry and serious humor. This topic seems too funny to be considered as a real argument on teachers, so I think it was just to poke fun at a mistake a teacher made.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Kevin said, in that it doesn't seem to be much of an attack on anyone, but sharing a mistake a teacher made and making a joke out of it. Using the word toads in that sentence doesn't really make much sense, both in that it's not a very fitting insult, and I can't really see what word the teacher was trying to write. To answer Mikaela's question, the only possible answers I can come up with are either to simply joke around and poke fun at the teacher, or that it's a student who has had bad experiences of a similar sort with the teacher in the past, and as such is ready to jump upon their every mistake and publicize it.
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