Because of the vicissitudes of life, it turns out that I’ve attended lectures and classes in several disciplines, in several languages, in several institutions, and in several countries.1 And when I look back on it all, what I can say (and these statistics are purely subjective) is that about 60% of those classes (you’ll excuse me using theological language) were as boring as hell – soul destroying, dispiriting, manipulative, unilateral, sleep-inducing, and disconnected from reality as I knew it then; about 5% were like being in heaven – intellectually stimulating, respectful of the students’ presence, out of time, engaging, energising, and leaving one in suspense for the next session; and the remaining 35% were somewhere in between – not quite purgatory, but, sometimes, close enough. And these judgements were not only mine, but they were shared by many who took these same classes.