Maybe you can use the essay as an example of circular reasoning, if not this semester, then (anonymized) in a later one? It's gotta be good for something (and unfortunately, exhibiting the student's critical-thinking skills doesn't seem to be one of the possibilities).
You didn't ask them to write about something that changed their life, did you? If so, you kind of brought that one on yourself. Most of them don't even really have lives of their own to be changed. Shit, I was 25 before I had a personality, and 30 before I realized it needed changing.
God, no! I don't care about anything that changed their lives. I asked them to do a rhetorical analysis on a local election campaign slogan and at some point, somewhere, she got the idea that Taylor Swift's songs have political messages.
I must be getting old. I have no idea who Taylor Swift is nor do I see any reason for knowing. Maybe it's because I don't have any children and I quit my teaching job over a dozen years ago.
I don't know about y'all, but the fact that a 20-something in 2014 has rated this song using the value system of American Bandstand is kinda melting my brain. ("It's catchy and easy to dance to… I give it an 88, Dick!")
by Tess Haadsma
I'm confused about the point of this page. Is it for college professors or is it for teenie-boppers?
ReplyDeleteThe point of this page is for us (college professors) to point at (and/or mock, if we are so inclined) the teeny-boppers and their vapid blathering.
ReplyDeleteCollege Professors. Are you a college professor who understands sarcasm and irony? Then you belong here.
ReplyDeletePS You need a name here so we know how to identify you.
I have a student writing about how Taylor Swift changed her life because she didn't like her music before, but now she does. Heaven help us all.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can use the essay as an example of circular reasoning, if not this semester, then (anonymized) in a later one? It's gotta be good for something (and unfortunately, exhibiting the student's critical-thinking skills doesn't seem to be one of the possibilities).
DeleteIt's certainly more appropriate than my "prostitute" example: prostitution is bad because they're paid money to have sex.
DeleteYou didn't ask them to write about something that changed their life, did you? If so, you kind of brought that one on yourself. Most of them don't even really have lives of their own to be changed. Shit, I was 25 before I had a personality, and 30 before I realized it needed changing.
DeleteGod, no! I don't care about anything that changed their lives. I asked them to do a rhetorical analysis on a local election campaign slogan and at some point, somewhere, she got the idea that Taylor Swift's songs have political messages.
DeleteI must be getting old. I have no idea who Taylor Swift is nor do I see any reason for knowing. Maybe it's because I don't have any children and I quit my teaching job over a dozen years ago.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about y'all, but the fact that a 20-something in 2014 has rated this song using the value system of American Bandstand is kinda melting my brain. ("It's catchy and easy to dance to… I give it an 88, Dick!")
ReplyDelete-- Pappy Yokum, Ph.D.