Our anonymous submitter, a college student in California, thought he was “flying under the radar” in his poetry class, but as later he discovered, the “stealth mode” setting on his iPod Touch was a little buggy.
Valediction: a forbidding warning
December 17th, 2008 · 98 comments
FILED UNDER: California · cell phone · college life · oh snap
98 responses so far ↓
#1
ben
Why is there no picture? I want to see it! That’s one of my favorite parts of this site.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:02 pm rating: 3
#2
Andy
Deaf flickr.com,
..!..
I want my PAN.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:08 pm rating: 1
#3
Gail
Someone needs to fix this post!
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:08 pm rating: 0
#4
TryThis
Click the picture box – the pic will come up. There’s just no preview.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:10 pm rating: 4
#5
ME
Oops…someone already mentioned it.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:10 pm rating: 0
#6
Canthz_B
I wonder if the professor was on the phone when (s)he wrote “…much additional to add…”, but then, those who can’t…teach.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:20 pm rating: 9
#7
ME
It’s pretty sad his phone is damned. I think mine’s just lazy.
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:21 pm rating: 17
#8
mh
Is it bad that I noticed he isn’t using MLA format for his bibliography?
(Why couldn’t his teacher be passive aggressive about that?)
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:47 pm rating: 6
#9
GhostWriter
Lemme guess, is your teacher’s name, Mary Kay Letourneau?
Dec 17, 2008 at 1:07 pm rating: 7
#10
Julia
I always find it funny how people think we don’t know they’re using their phones when they shouldn’t be. It’s so obvious.
“Stealth mode” or not, you’re not as sneaky as you think you are.
Dec 17, 2008 at 1:16 pm rating: 24
#11
Canthz Boo-er
Seems to me like those who can’t…spend all their time on this site.
Damn. Forgot to nest.
Dec 17, 2008 at 1:20 pm rating: 12
#12
Gledwood
Hey remember me? What’s happened to Women on the Verge… ??
Dec 17, 2008 at 2:23 pm rating: 0
#13
Tyler
They got an A on the paper…maybe I need to spend more time on my phone in class. (Or take poetry classes instead of calculus and the likes…)
Dec 17, 2008 at 3:02 pm rating: 1
#14
allensis
So if the student puts the ‘damned’ phone away, will the next paper be an A+?
Or should the student have the phone blessed at a Church so that it is no longer ‘damned’?
What to do, what to do.
Team: iPhone Damnation
Dec 17, 2008 at 3:33 pm rating: 6
#15
Jolene
If the writer is getting As on his or her paper and still able to use the phone in class, I think that reflects more poorly on the instructor than on the student.
College sucked. What a waste of time.
Signed,
Summa Cum Laude, Ivy League School
Dec 17, 2008 at 3:50 pm rating: 2
#16
Canthz_B
“so you might want to mention this poem to the class.”
Yeah. Right. I really want to look like a brown-nosing dick in front of everyone.
With tuition as high as it is, I expect you to do the mentioning!
Dec 17, 2008 at 4:03 pm rating: 5
#17
Kate
This is the epitome of passive aggression! Thank you for sharing this, and disregard these bourgeoise idiots. Rock on and HAIL THE MOTHERLAND!
Dec 17, 2008 at 5:31 pm rating: 0
#18
Ti O
Damien always set his Heckberry to stealth when he went to catechism class.
Dec 17, 2008 at 5:47 pm rating: 7
#19
Kristin
I am so confused, I thought iPod Touch was NOT a phone? Isn’t it an iPod with wifi?
Dec 17, 2008 at 6:38 pm rating: 1
#20
Woman on the Verge
I detest people who think they are stealth-texting and when you call them on it, they say, “Oh, I’m not texting… I was just checking to see if I missed any calls…” Assholes.
Dec 17, 2008 at 7:37 pm rating: 2
#21
Christina
I love it when my students try to convince me they’re ‘just taking notes’ or ‘changing songs’ on their iphone. Dudes, I own an iphone; I know what the text screen looks like. Put it away. And no, on your desk right next to your hand, ready to pick up as I walk away, is not “away.”
Dec 17, 2008 at 7:48 pm rating: 6
#22
park rose
I worked with a woman who would answer the students’ phones if they regularly rang in class (nothing too stealthy about a phone ringing). She taught ESL, so usually she’d be speaking to someone’s (generally non-English speaking) parents in China, Saudi or wherever.
I’m sure she would have done the same if native-English speaker students were regularly receiving calls in class. She rocked.
Dec 17, 2008 at 8:20 pm rating: 7
#23
anglophile
What I’m more concerned about is the fact that the person teaching a poetry class doesn’t have “much additional to add” about a poem because he didn’t “study” it. What? He can’t read a poem and come up with his own ideas about it?
Dec 18, 2008 at 5:19 am rating: 9
#24
Mishee
My stepson recently got caught with his cell phone in his lap during class (8th grade) and he tried to tell me that in the middle of Algebra he had the bright idea that his phone wasn’t on vibrate and he had to take that exact moment to take it out of his pocket and check to make sure it was silenced.
Yeaaahhhh… riiiigggghhht…
Of course, a simple visit to cingular.com answered my questions immediately. Thank god for up to the minute bill details.
Dec 18, 2008 at 11:26 am rating: 2
#25
T.U.M.
My old office was next door to a big lecture hall, and at least once a day a student would come to me to ask if anyone had turned in his/her phone.
Leaving aside the whole issue of “you shouldn’t have had it out during class anyway,” I was always tempted to add, “if you’re so scatterbrained and distracted that *left the phone behind* then you REALLY need to be paying extra attention in class.”
Dec 18, 2008 at 2:28 pm rating: 0
#26
name
wats an iphone?
Dec 18, 2008 at 8:46 pm rating: 2
#27
Mono
I feel like if you’re paying for school the prof. is working for YOU! If you don’t feel the need to pay attention you shouldn’t have to, I mean, that’s why it all comes down to test in the end. So people don’t have to care about who cares or not… everybody’s happy! Granted whatever you’re doing shouldn’t be getting in the way of other people who are trying to learn. (e.g. Snoring, talking, dancing, playing quarters, cup stacking…)
I’m just sayin, if you went to a movie and fell asleep, no one’s gonna come by and be like “Hey! Wake up! We’re trying to entertain you!”. Why? Because you paid already, that’s why… and not paying attention does not warrant a refund.
Dec 19, 2008 at 3:07 pm rating: 0
#28
Asshole
I ne’er touched your computer! How dare you, lying heathen!
Jan 10, 2009 at 1:14 pm rating: 0
#29
jason
It would’ve been funnier if he hadn’t gotten an A.
May 3, 2009 at 2:42 pm rating: 0
#30 Feeling of failing | PassiveAggressiveNotes.com
[...] One final critique — put the damned phone away! TweetShare0mail [...]
Nov 21, 2010 at 8:01 pm rating: 0
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