that's power

So this was fun, a long lost friend found me on Myspace. We were friends when we were students in the mid 1980s, and we became friends when on the first day of class we found ourselves sitting next to each other in the back of the room.

When a couple of years ago the local police in my small friendly California town sent me to a day of traffic school (for an offense I didn't commit, I swear) the same thing happened. I sat in the back, looked around during the first hour, and had made friends by the second break.

I think of that when I try to catch the eye of the students in the back row at the first day of class in my own classes.

By the second class meeting I force them to sit in a circle.