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According to your description, the girl actually knew about the novel. How is she dumb just for forgetting the name? Forgetting happens to the best of us. Also, one’s knowledge about names, places, things, etc. is dependent on different life circumstances that may lead her to know about one thing but not another. Perhaps her high school curriculum was different. Are you confident that your knowledge is the standard, whereby if someone doesn’t know something that you happen to know, he or she is “dumb”? She probably possesses other academic knowledge that you don’t.</p>
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<p>Are you sure the students were “glaring” at you in disapproval? How are the students pretending they don’t know more than anybody else? This would require that you know what each student knows. Also, I’m genuinely curious as to how the students sustained the conversation. What was the topic and how was the conversation carried out? What ideas were introduced?</p>
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I’ve read Chicago students on this forum describing an unwritten rule applied by students who haven’t done the required reading but are expected to contribute to class. Something along the lines of BSing their way through it. </p>
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<p>I believe that students should bring up only the most relevant and important knowledge in class discussions so that others could get the most out of class time. If you want to ask a question that does not serve to accomplish the professor and class’s goals, ask the professor outside of class. If the question improves students’ understanding of the subject at hand and is clearly important (even if the connection is not outright apparent), bring it up. By definition, “trivia” are obscure facts that are often unimportant. As you know, mastering the knowledge process is more important than knowing obscure facts (good to know many of them, but one shouldn’t be called “dumb” for forgetting the name of something)</p>
<p>Btw, if the girl was describing the Ethan Frome novel (which you say was brought up by the professor), then it wasn’t external and not irrelevant. From which other examples did you extract the rule? How did the class react to the girl for describing what you perceived as external and “random trivia”?</p>
<p>What other contributions did you make in class?</p>
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<p>You said “classroom,” and yet you gave an example about a discussion outside of the classroom. </p>
<p>How are Northwestern students not able to talk about intellectual things outside the classroom?</p>