A few weeks ago I had a special moment as a teacher. A moment when the stars aligned and created an instance of great geek-i-tude. I'll try to recreate it for you. But, like all amazing moments, it loses some of its brilliance in its retelling.
I'll set the scene. It happened during my Comp II class. We were discussing fallacies of reasoning. My lessons on reasoning are my favorite part of the semester in Comp II. There are always a few students who seem to really understand (or "grok" if you prefer) and relate to these lessons. At any rate, we had already gone over the basics and I was on to providing more elaborate examples.
And so it began.
Me: "Did anyone see last night's episode of the Big Bang Theory?" [two-thirds of the class raised their hands] Well on last night's episode...
Student in the Front Row: WAIT! I haven't seen it yet!
Me: Don't worry, this won't ruin it. ...In last night's episode, Sheldon used the Appeal to Tradition fallacy when he insisted that they eat supper at Sheldon and Leonard's apartment instead of at Raj's apartment because they "always eat supper at their apartment on Thursday nights." [Some nods and smiles of recognition spread across the class.]
Student #1: Hey, didn't they mention post hoc ergo propter hoc in an episode of the Big Bang Theory?
Student #2: I remember that. It was on the one where they all got back from Antarctica.
Student #3: The one where they all came back with beards?
Student #1: Except Sheldon, he just had a goatee.
Student #2: Yeah! He looked like evil Spock!
Student in the Front Row: Khaaaan!
I smiled and told them they were all awesome. A good half of the class had no idea what they were talking about, but it didn't matter. For that moment, I felt like I was in the company of a great group of geeks.
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