TOW #15 - Professor misses class thinking school starts next week (Satire)

With the current semester at colleges and university starting off, The Oakland Post leaves room for humor. In "Professor misses class thinking school starts next week". student Nowshin Chowdhury writes a story describing a mishap at Oakland University in order to satirize a society's principals. She uses irony and parody as a way to make evident to her audience the ridiculousness of our emphasis on school.

She uses irony when writing, “I am not in denial,” professor Ian Denyle said to his wife on Jan. 4. “School starts next week. I’m still on vacation. Oakland is a great institution that recognizes our hard work and rewards us with much-deserved, long holiday breaks.” Obviously, the professor has said the opposite of the outcome of him missing the first day of class, thus satirizing teachers for being miss informed. In case of parody, the whole article is filled with specific times, like so: "At 4:20, students left the room, and the lights went out in the empty classroom." This kind of specifies gives off the effect that the manner is serious and that exact times are crucial to the situation. Chowdhury does this as a way to ridicule her readers of college students, who might feel worked up over the little details of their current schedule.

Nowshin Chowdhury proves to be a successful writer in the field of satire, a talent very admirable for someone of collegiate-age. She remains respectful with her subjects, while poking fun at them and their need to stress over their education. I think a great tie in to the theme of this essay is to quote Mr. Yost: “Relax; it’s just school.”