| Ah, Michelle. I thought I'd find you here. |
| Hello, Henry. |
| Yes, I'm afraid the smoker's lounge is about the only place I can relax in around here. |
| Can I do something for you, or are you just slumming? |
| Well, I was wondering... |
| You teach the afternoon section of Modern Social Systems, don't you? |
| Yes, that's me. Why? |
| Have you got a student in there by the name of Steiger, Sara Steiger? |
| Sara? Yes, you know her? |
| I sure do. |
| She's in my undergrad psychology seminar. |
| She's beginning to be a real problem for the class, |
| and I was just wondering how you were handling her. |
| Or is she OK in your class? |
| OK? Uh... Yes. |
| Well, not really, |
| but she's just eager to learn, I think, don't you? |
| You think so? |
| That's why she never stops asking questions? |
| I'll tell you what I think, |
| I think she already knows the answers before she asks. |
| Or she's just asking for the sake of asking. |
| Huh? Why's that? |
| Well, half the time she wants to know about something we've already discussed in some detail, |
| and half the time she has questions that are off-topic or, well, just, uh, mindless. |
| I suppose you could be right about that. |
| Sara can certainly be irritating sometimes. |
| Sometimes I feel I'm cheating the rest of the students by spending so much time explaining things to her. |
| Exactly. And I can see them all rolling their eyes. |
| The rest of my class is a little irritated with her, too. |
| Maybe we should just give her the benefit of the doubt. |
| Maybe she's just trying too hard, I dunno, to learn maybe, |
| or maybe just to make an impression on us. |
| I don't know what her motives could be. |
| Yeah, well. She's making an impression, all right, but it isn't a good one. |
| Any ideas? |
| Pro-active ones, I mean. |
| Well, I guess we should have a talk with her. |
| A talk? A private one, you mean? |
| Yeah. It's either that, or just give her the cold shoulder. |
| I'm afraid I've already been giving her a bit of that. |
| I thought maybe she'd take the hint and sit back, listen and take notes for a change. |
| She doesn't, doesn't take any notes? |
| She does in my class, voluminous ones! |
| Are you sure, Michelle? |
| Sure, I'm sure, she's always scribbling away. |
| But have you seen Sara's notes? |
| Well, no, but... |
| I have. I took a peek over her shoulder a couple of times. |
| She's a doodler. |
| A what?! She doodles? |
| All over her notebook. |
| I don't think she's keeping any kind of notes or paying attention at all to what I'm saying or what anyone else says in class. |
| She's just daydreaming, or dreaming up something irrelevant to inquire into. |
| This morning we'd been talking about Jung's theory of archetypes, |
| and she suddenly blurted out "What's an archtype?" |
| Well, we'd been discussing archtypes for half an hour by then, |
| and it was like she'd just realized she'd heard a strange word, |
| when the conversation was almost over. |
| Heh! That's Sara, all right. |
| OK then, who's going to talk to her, you or me? |
| Umm.. |
| OK, OK, I'll see if I can get her to come in and talk to me later this week. |
| I'll be seeing her in class tomorrow afternoon, I guess. |
| Maybe I can get her to settle down a little... |
| She doodles? |
| Yes! Pretty good, really. |
| Complex, architectural, rococo things. |
| Maybe she could go to art school instead of majoring in sociology. |
| That's Sara's major, is it? |
| I think so, I think she mentioned that once. |
| Anyway, yes, if you could have a little talk with her, that would be great. |
| And let me know what happens, what you find out, will you? |
| Of course. I'll let you know how it goes. |
| Thanks, Michelle, very much. I owe you one. |
| Now, I've got to run before all this secondhand smoke does me in. |
| Haha... Now don't start that! |
| Haha, all right, but you know you should really try to,- |
| Henry! |
| OK. Thanks. See you. |
| Talk to you soon. |