UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR GIVES STUDENTS THE OPTION OF A 15-SECOND DANCE OR A 15,000-WORD ESSAY FOR THEIR MIDTERM EXAM
You may recall your early years, when you would make up ridiculous justifications to avoid completing a school project. Perhaps you pretended to have a stomachache or said that your schoolwork was actually eaten by the dog. Most of the time, though, you were forced to buckle down and finish the task. Professor Matthew Pittman of the University of Tennessee saw that his students could be searching for a way out of their midterm project, so he gave them an unexpected option: either write a 15,000-word paper or dance in front of the class for 15 seconds.
The choice may appear out of the ordinary coming from a professor. After all, choosing to dance entails sacrificing an opportunity to demonstrate academic prowess and displaying a great deal of vulnerability in front of your peers. One pupil, however, saw it as the ideal chance to flaunt her skills. The moment her professor asked the class if anyone wanted to accept the dancing option was captured in a now-viral video posted by TikTok user Kenzie Greene. The lecturer invited the student who raised her hand in the first row to the front so she could try her hardest at a 15-second routine.
The self-assured student gave a dynamic performance that included daring dance steps and even some acrobatics. Upon finishing, she turned to face the professor, anticipating a response. Pittman gave a slight nod and continued speaking to the class. He clarified, "The second option is a 15,000-word article on the implications of AI in biomedical engineering." "Who is choosing option two?" Without hesitation, every hand in the room went up, choosing the long paper above the spotlight, possibly indicating that the class is full of introverts.
Pittman has established himself as a lecturer who thinks beyond the box. He earlier gained notoriety for waking up dozing classmates by shouting out emo tunes. Additionally, this offer of a 15-second dance is not the first time the professor has come up with inventive ways to grant extra credit. Students were asked to predict the lyrics to a Zach Bryan song in another video that Greene posted. If they were correct, students received free tickets to the country singer-songwriter's performance in addition to extra credit. We have to admit that, as Greene stated in the caption, "College is so unserious sometimes."
