my college is starting a new program called the student U wherein students get to teach courses for other students for two hours once a week for four weeks. i am thinking of making a proposal to teach a class on the smiths and morrissey. this is where you guys come in. do you have any suggestions for me relating to content, course structure, etc.? or do you think it's a crappy idea?

Hi Mindy
how much do you get paid to teach a class is it the same rate of pay as your tutors? I'm not sure I'd want to learn about Our Moz in class, do it outside of the class room is my idea.
I think you should set up a Morrissey Smiths Society, get a disco set up, get the Moz word out that way, posters, t-shirts etc.

Grim O'Grady

> my college is starting a new program called the student U wherein students
> get to teach courses for other students for two hours once a week for four
> weeks. i am thinking of making a proposal to teach a class on the smiths
> and morrissey. this is where you guys come in. do you have any suggestions
> for me relating to content, course structure, etc.? or do you think it's a
> crappy idea?

Would anyone at your school and your age even know who Morrissey is????

you actually don't really get paid. you get a gift certificate or something. i was just bored and thought it might be fun. of course, i also posted that rather late at night, and in the morning, when i've lost all ambition, it doesn't sound like much fun! i can only imagine the annoying emo types who'd probably sign up and ask why all smiths' songs don't sound like "how soon is now" and where are the acoustic guitars. your idea is more reasonable, and would probably be less time-consuming/irritating. will think about it. thanks.

well, i know of a few who do, but they are more of the variety that thinks the smiths are cool but everything moz did afterwards sucks. you know the type -- the elitist casual fan. i've introduced a few people to them, with mixed results -- no natural-born fans. i've seen one person wearing the yummy shirt from world tour 2002, and a friend who took a seminar on the beatles reported back to me that there were several people in his class who said morrissey was cool when the prof made a random, obscure disparaging remark about him. also, and this is sad, my guitar teacher barely knew who the smiths were. he said "isn't that a fringe thing?" anyway, some people definitely do know morrissey is. i just don't know if many of them care!

> my college is starting a new program called the student U wherein students
> get to teach courses for other students for two hours once a week for four
> weeks. i am thinking of making a proposal to teach a class on the smiths
> and morrissey. this is where you guys come in. do you have any suggestions
> for me relating to content, course structure, etc.? or do you think it's a
> crappy idea?

yeah, but what materials do you reference?

"Everyone turn to page 145 in the Rogan text to the passage discussing how Morrissey dyed his hair. can anyone tell me what significance this had lyrically in later years?"

> well, i know of a few who do, but they are more of the variety that thinks
> the smiths are cool but everything moz did afterwards sucks. you know the
> type -- the elitist casual fan. i've introduced a few people to them, with
> mixed results -- no natural-born fans. i've seen one person wearing the
> yummy shirt from world tour 2002, and a friend who took a seminar on the
> beatles reported back to me that there were several people in his class
> who said morrissey was cool when the prof made a random, obscure
> disparaging remark about him. also, and this is sad, my guitar teacher
> barely knew who the smiths were. he said "isn't that a fringe
> thing?" anyway, some people definitely do know morrissey is. i just
> don't know if many of them care!

Well then there's your answer.

well i had imagined it being more like teaching a literature class, wherein i approached morrissey's lyrics as poetry (which they are).

rather than teaching a class on Moz, why not do something productive with your free time in college? Suggestions:

Get drunk
do drugs
have sex

1) don't like the taste.
2) what? me do drugs? you've got to be kidding. wouldn't touch the stuff.
3) saving myself for moz!

Oh, I'll throw in my 2 cents. i think it would be hard to convince the college higher-ups that Moz is a worthwhile subject. But having done that, I think you could do Moz about all his scandals in the English press; or maybe you could do some kind of lit class based on Moz lyric sources (Wilde, Elizabeth Smart, etc)Or you could do something about how Moz's fans are infatuated with him.

I don't know that any of these are good ideas, but maybe they'll get yer noggin going. I look forward to Moz-solo 102: The Mark Nevin years.

well they said any subject was cool, although subject to approval. and they do have freshman seminars on the beatles and other topics culled from pop culture (i'm pretty sure there was an eminem one last semester - blech!), which you actually get credits for taking. these are just little classes for fun, no credits, so i'd hope they wouldn't be bitchy about it. however, i do think this might be a bit too involved for me. i forgot that i am lazy. and if i did do it, i'd probably want to teach his lyrics as a poetry class, with some musical interludes.

> well, i know of a few who do, but they are more of the variety that thinks
> the smiths are cool but everything moz did afterwards sucks. you know the
> type -- the elitist casual fan. i've introduced a few people to them, with
> mixed results -- no natural-born fans. i've seen one person wearing the
> yummy shirt from world tour 2002, and a friend who took a seminar on the
> beatles reported back to me that there were several people in his class
> who said morrissey was cool when the prof made a random, obscure
> disparaging remark about him. also, and this is sad, my guitar teacher
> barely knew who the smiths were. he said "isn't that a fringe
> thing?" anyway, some people definitely do know morrissey is. i just
> don't know if many of them care!
Hey! Sounds like London.

..are an evil breed, they all have long greasy hair and enjoy Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Arm yourself with a load of Smiths records, learn off them and quit the lessons. It'll be for the best!

i already quit the lessons. i am hopeless with musical instruments. he had short hair actually, but he was into sort of lame music like eighties hair bands. he also liked stevie ray vaughn (sp?) and eric clapton, who are okay. he made us play that godawful beatles song "rocky racoon." ugh.