Wednesday, July 21, 2004

A note from the University

On teaching:

'Please be sure to make clear to your students that attendance is compulsory.' Apparently some students have complained, on receiving a low grade, that they had not been told that it was necessary to actually come to class.

The whole edifice of common sense can no longer be taken for granted. The more litigious American society becomes the more this edifice will be eroded. Employee sues employer for being made redundant, after employer fails to point out that attendance is compulsory. Vastly overweight man sues McDonald's for not providing him with written documentation that lard-burgers are not entirely compatible with optimum athleticism. A vast legal superstructure, wordily detailing the bleeding obvious will gradually come to occupy the set of silent rules that had previously regulated - but also enabled - human interaction.

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