It's funny, Professor, that you should propose this as the date movable type first appeared. It just reminded me of when I was on a trip to Egypt, oh maybe ten or fifteen years ago, with my wife. We went to the most fascinating museum in Cairo. I believe it is closed now, and there weren't any presses there exactly, but there were these very intricate rollers and I'm not sure if they were used to make papyrus documents or perhaps used on wet clay... - anonymous MS
I started university at 26. My younger sister's biggest warning to me was, "Don't act like an MS. MSes are the absolute worst." She was already in her third year and was helping me prepare. The typical MS, she explained, has a offensive and long winded keenerness which is rooted in a deep desire to share their life story. When this desire inevitably collides with hundreds of young people trying to jedi mind trick them into shutting up, an MS becomes aloof, sometimes even caustic. They want to prove they aren't deficient for being MSes, but they lack the proper audience.
In my sister's depiction of MSes, they sat in the front row of the lecture hall, and when they looked back over their shoulders at the younger students, they glared. How could these disgusting kids waste all this good education? The MS waited until the lecture was almost over to ask their tenth question and then it was less a question than some pontification or a summation of the extra curricular reading they had done. They engaged the professor after class, every class.
I was dismissive of her mockery and warnings, but one week in I was cringing whenever a wrinkly hand was raised. I would see it hanging there, mere feet from the professor's face, and hope that its owner would understand that if your hand has been up for that long it is probably time to lower it. Everyone was hoping that. Even more cringe worthy was that I would sometimes watch my own hand rise and hear a question coming from my mouth that, for some reason, involved myself and what I had been doing with my life before attending university as central points to whatever the professor was lecturing on. The MS can find corollaries between any topic and their lives. When my sister asked how university was and I told her about some of my questions, she would say, "There is no excuse for being an MS." I would defend myself by saying I was merely interested in the discussion and couldn't help but contribute. But she was adamant, there was no excuse and you are making those around you suffer.
Of course not all MSes are so bad and it's not totally their fault. After years in a cubicle or slinging drinks or changing diapers, university is riveting. You read interesting things and then hear bright professors break them down for you. MSes need to learn to keep it together inside the lecture hall though. Please future MS, if you are reading this, ask a TA in tutorial. Email the prof. Contemplate silently. Engage other keeners outside of class, a young keener will not shun you. They are equally riveted. And its not the normal student's fault that you are mature and know that, compared to real life, university is a blessing. They are teenagers, and have spent most of their life in school.