My Favorite One-Liners: Part 55

In this series, I’m compiling some of the quips and one-liners that I’ll use with my students to hopefully make my lessons more memorable for them.

Professors play many roles. I play the role of quality control when grading exams. However, I also play the role of head cheerleader… though I have standards that enforce, I want my students to meet those standards. At times, I have to play the role of motivational speaker when talking to a student who’s despondent about how he/she performed on a recent exam.

In these situations, if I’m sitting with a student to discuss a recent exam and explaining where he/she went wrong, I’ll use the following line to try to lighten the mood of the meeting as I’m looking over the test:

To quote Billy Crystal in the Princess Bride, I’ve seen worse.

Because the truth is, after over 20 years as a professor, I’ve almost certainly have seen worse.