The Stupid, It Burns

T's school was delayed again this morning.  Ry had a meeting he really didn't want to miss.  Lucky for me, I have a good friend I can call at 6:45 in the morning and beg to watch my child for a couple hours.  I didn't want to miss my Chemistry class since my prof has an attendance policy and I thought there was a quiz today.

I got to class, and waited for Dr. Science to come.  When he arrived, the students whined enough that he put the quiz off until Monday.  Then he asked if we had any questions on the homework.  Several hands shot up.  Keep in mind that Dr. Science has given at least one lecture on the following topics: scientific notation, significant figures, and the metric system.  To drive home the point that the prefixes on the metric system mean the same thing, regardless of the unit he asked "What is the relationship between a snark and a millisnark?"  Ok, back to the questions.

Big Dumb Guy: Can you review using significant figures with addition?

Dr. Science: Sure. Let's do this problem.  What is 21 - 3.5 - 4?

Big Dumb Guy: Can you do the problem in the book?

Dr. Science: Sure, but the principle is the same.

Big Dumb Guy: But I had a question about the problem in the book.

Dr. Science: Ok, let's do the problem in the book.

And so it went.  We mercifully got through this example when another hand went up.

Little Dumb Girl: Can you do any of the problems from 1 - 11? I didn't understand them.

Dr. Science:  Ok, so these are about converting between units.  Do you remember when we converted between millimeters and meters?

Little Dumb Girl: Yeah, but what is a g and an ng?

Dr. Science: Sigh. Did you read the chapter?

Little Dumb Girl: Blank Stare

Dr. Science:  A g is a gram.  An ng is a nanogram.  A nanogram is equal to 10(-9) grams.

Little Dumb Girl:  That wasn't one of the ones you talked about in class.

Dr. Science: I know, but it was in the chapter.  See, here's where it's your responsibility to look up the things you don't understand.  He works through the problem. Any other questions?

Same Dumb Girl: What's a ms?

Dr. Science: What does the m abbreviation stand for?

Same Dumb Girl: Blank Stare

Dr. Science: Sigh.

And it went on like this for an hour.  We didn't get to new material until there were 15 minutes left in class.  I feel like I'm stupider for having sat through that class. I don't mind when people don't understand things, really I don't.  What I mind is when people are willfully stupid.  And I could have been at home with my little boy.