The Illustrated Professor

Here are photos I took today of the It Depends t-shirt that students in my English grammar class made for themselves and for me to celebrate the end of our class together.

Here they are taking the final.

I had a habit of answering their questions about grammatical correctness with “it depends”—that is, answering with an emphasis on the rhetorical nature of written communication.

“Questions are good things” is my class mantra.  Many students are so afraid of asking questions.  Why is that?  I also told them that while “grammar ain’t sexy,” they already know more than they know they know.

It also makes me happy to think that this t-shirt reflects their ability to think of the English classroom as a place to play and learn, even in that dreaded grammar class.