He was in his 60's..long and distinguished career..he'd been mentioned as a possible Nobel candidate a few times.
The second lecture...he walks in..stands in front of the class..asks a question about the material we were assigned on the first day.
Nobody answers, raises a hand..even dares to move.
He looks out over us, and says..
" There are two possible explanations at work. Either you are all brilliant, and understand it all perfectly, or you haven't bothered to read the material. In either case, there is absolutely no point in my wasting my time by being here."
And he walked out.
Subsequent classes were much better..
:)
I audited a class from a professor like that. I was really interested in the material (which was linear mathematics for ComSci’s).
It was about three weeks into the class. Things were starting to get pretty thick, as the pace was picking up, people were dropping out, and the classes were getting quiet. He asked “are there any questions on the material?” I looked around, saw no one else raising their hands, and I had a question. So I raised my hand, asked my question.
The professor then answered my question, which led me to another question. Asked and answered.
He then asked “Are there any other questions?”
No one said anything. No one moved to even bring out their materials or notebooks.
And he said something pretty similar to your example - “...with the exception of this person over here... what’s your name?” as he was pulling out his grade book. “You’re obviously the only one who read the material! I should make note of the fact you’re the only one who did the assignment or read the material!”
I told him my name... fearing what was about to happen. Flip, flip, flip... squint, looked up and down his roster...
“You’re not on my roster!”
“Well, um, ah, I’m auditing your class. is it OK if I sit in?”
Oh, the friends I didn’t make as he excoriated the people who were actually on the roster for not taking the effort of “the deadbeat who isn’t even paying for the class!”