You've seen those Xtranormal videos that have been going around.  The ones featuring the professor in her office with a student whose cluelessness might seem, if you are not a teacher, exaggerated.  They are no exaggeration.  Consider the following email exchange that I was treated to late yesterday afternoon.

From me:

Dear Preparation for College English students:

I have corrected and returned your "Influential Person" paragraphs through the online classroom system.  You should be able to download your corrected assignment and view the corrections and comments I have made.  If you have any trouble downloading or opening the file, let me know.

I will not be accepting any late submissions of this assignment as of now.

Your English teacher,

Siobhan Curious

From student:

i dont understand didnt we have till 12:00

From me:

Dear Ephraim:

As I said in the message I sent you last week after you missed class, you had until 12 NOON today to submit this assignment.

Yours, Siobhan.

From student:

i didnt understand that i thought we had till 12 tonight like all the other assignments we have until midnight

From me:

Ephraim, the instructions were given very clearly in class, in the message that I sent you after you missed class last week, and on the assignment itself in the online dropbox.  It is your responsibility to read the guidelines carefully if you were not there when they were explained.  I do not know what you mean by "all the other assignments," but they are not relevant.  Please do not write me about this again.  Siobhan.

From student:

so can i at lests give you the assignment and lose piont because it was given in late or i canty

From me:

See message below: "I will not be accepting any late submissions of this assignment as of now."  I am not replying to any more of your messages today, Ephraim.  See you tomorrow.

From student:

But I didn't understand miss Il bring you the assignemnt tomorrow fist thing can I pleas come to your officeto discuss.

From me:

{silence}

I would like to point out that these messages arrived today after yesterday's class on "Writing Effective Emails."  A class that Ephraim did not attend.

Let me make something clear: I don't mean to suggest - I never mean to suggest - that college teachers are more long-suffering than those who do other jobs.  I suspect, however, that our sufferings are, on occasion, a little funnier than others'.  Funny the way a Peter Sellers film is funny.  If you don't believe me, watch the Xtranormal video above.  It is all completely, utterly true.