Dream of:
24 April 1983 (2) "Autocratic Professor"I was sitting in a practice court class being taught by Dawson (a law professor). Dawson seemed more playful than usual. I was very tired and once I even put my head down on my desk and fell asleep for about a minute, but I quickly woke back up. I thought, "Well the main reason I'm tired is because we had to set our clocks up an hour and I lost an hour's sleep. I had to get up an hour earlier. Daylight savings time."
We were reading legal cases. One case showed the picture of a man and said the man had become a teacher, because, due to the way his face was formed, if he wasn't a teacher he would probably become a bus conductor. Since he didn't want to become a bus conductor, he had become a teacher. Dawson jovially remarked, "Isn't that a good reason for becoming a teacher, because of the way your face looks?"
I looked up at Dawson and acted as if I were laughing along with him, although I didn't think what he had said was funny. As the class proceeded, Dawson ducked down as if he were expecting someone to throw something at him. Everyone in the class was laughing and suddenly I saw a crumpled up piece of paper fly through the air and hit Dawson on the back. Dawson stood back up and I didn't think he was going to do anything about the paper having been thrown, but a mean scowl crossed his face as he marched over to the light switch and turned off all the lights in the room except those in the front row.
He began pointing at people and telling them to stand up. He pointed at someone next to me. Then he pointed to me and I stood up. Finally he had pointed to about 15 people who had stood up and he told us all to come to the front of the room.
I was wearing what appeared to be some kind of silly looking army belt strapped around my left shoulder. It obviously was only for show and had no functional purpose. I wasn't even sure why I was wearing it and it finally fell down around my waist. At first I didn't even think I was wearing a shirt, but then realized I was wearing my khaki shirt.
Dawson told us to walk back and forth in front of the front row and he said the action was to symbolize that we were buzzards flying over a cadaver.
He then walked back to Miller, who was the fellow who had thrown the crumpled up paper. By that time Miller was fairly upset. Dawson said he had decided that because of his action, Miller was going to receive a grade of "D" in practice court. Miller was practically on the verge of tears.
By that time it was 9:05 and Dawson dismissed the class. I stood and
my girlfriend Louise walked up beside me. I wanted to talk with her about what had just happened, but she quickly walked out the door.I wanted to tell Dawson I thought he was being unfair, because I thought he had elicited the throwing of the paper. I walked outside for a minute and then walked back inside. Several people were still standing around talking about what had happened.
Miller then walked into the room. He was crying profusely and some people led him to the back of the room where they sat down and talked with him.
I walked over to some people sitting in a row of seats which were faced toward the back of the class. The people were getting ready for the next class and I asked, "Do you look in the opposite direction in this class?"
They told me they did. I thought that was rather strange. One of the people was Lisa Douglas (a law student). I asked them what they thought about what had happened with Dawson, but they did not answer. Finally I said, "Well I really wanted to stand up and say something because I really thought it was unfair, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, because I thought if he's that autocratic about it and doing that to Miller, then if I took up for Miller, then I'd just end up cutting down my grade to."
Dawson walked back into the room. I didn't want him to overhear what I was saying and said, "Well, never mind."
I walked back out into the hall. I thought I would be on the jury which would judge Douglas' practice court trial today. So it had been good to talk with her for a moment to see how she talked. In fact, I thought she was probably only talking with me because she knew I was going to be on her jury. I thought that was OK because I didn't know her well and I wanted to find out a little about her anyway.
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