Love your lectures?

Having done a class today in which more than a few people in the class hadn't bothered to turn up with a copy of the play or texts being studied (again), this Doonesbury strip caught my eye. Today's texts were a selection from Gerrard Winstanley's writings and Caryl Churchill's play about the Diggers, A Light Shining in Buckinghamshire.

I don't expect everyone to like every text - quite often, hating a text produces a great discussion - but the feeling that some of the class actively resent being there is very dispiriting. It's university. You don't have to a) sign up or b) turn up. I actively don't care if you'd rather not come - you're adults. But if you do come, at least read the bloody books and talk about them.

Thanks - as always - to the students who do talk. I do realise that you can't be enthusiastic about every text and I appreciate your effort. If I haven't conveyed my enthusiasm, then I've failed to some extent too.