Here’s the deal-io.  We have a gunner in our class.  This gunner talks about a subject almost completely unrelated to the subject of the class.  None of us are really sure how the gunner’s topic fits into class, but we haven’t given up trying to figure it out just yet.

It would be different if the gunner’s subject did have something to do with the class.  I could understand why she would bring it up all the time, but it doesn’t.  It’s like it’s her pet peeve and that it’s the most important thing that any of us would ever want to discuss.  Sadly, like most gunner subjects, it is not.

Let me explain first what a gunner actually is.  It is a person who wants to talk throughout class, as in talking to hear himself talk, and in becoming, in some weird universe, the teacher’s pet.  It’s not only annoying, but it’s also quite amusing at times.  It makes a person want to stand up and say, “We all paid $1,000 for this class.  We’d appreciate some face time of our own, or at the very least a bit of time to ask questions that are actually relevant to the class subject.”  But, alas, as the gunner is (a) the teacher’s pet, and gunner (b) can’t be touched because the teacher likes the gunner and therefore is off-limits to the rest of the class.  Ugh.

So, what is a person left to do?  Interrupting the gunner is a good tactic.  So is rolling your eyes, as long as you don’t get caught.  Additionally, a person can just straight up ask what that has to do with the class subject.  Finally, trying a nice, “Well, now that we have that out of the way, we can actually get on with class,” might work, but some of these will obviously not gain you points with the professor.

So, just thank your lucky stars for the evenings in class where the gunner is either absent or quiet.  Those quiet times are few and far between and rare, like a precious emerald.