Still grading papers -- still laughing

This is an entry level American History survey course at a state university.

I find that most come in from high school with the idea that history is a lot of dry useless stuff that requires the rote memorization of a long list of dates.

I am just the graduate assistant for this class, but at my insistance, the adjunct added the following as a bonus question just to get them to thinking about it:



So far I have gotten a few insightful answers (they probably went to my review), but mostly just the high & dry memorization crowd. Here is one of the funniest so far:



another popular concept is that memorizing dates is important so we can know when to celebrate things and have holidays and stuff

This is a Woman'suniversity -- I thought women were all about relationships and stuff <LOL>

BTW, if this was you, see me after class.

:rofl:

those wacky kids.

that's like a question, you know, that like makes my head hurt?!?!? OMG!

for a US History survey course. I have to grade papers this weekend as well.

loads of laughs tonight for sure :toast:

I'm an undergrad TA for a History class...OMG, the papers are hilarious and scarily bad! :rofl:

:toast:

My wife is on the other side of the room grading tests in Constitutional Law.

I'll never forget the paper where this freshman kept referring to Machiavelli as "Prince Matchabelli"!!!

:rofl:

:wtf:

...are unable to memorize dates because some people out there in our nation don't have dates, and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future... for our children.


:7

good answer!
:rofl::cry::rofl::cry::rofl::cry::rofl::cry:

:)

Unfortunately, this is an actual answer

"Slavery was a real big thing at this point of time because the slave owners had just got the hang of the whole ordeal and it was something new so everyone wanted to try it. ..."

:cry: I think I need a hug :cry:

:rofl:

:deadfaint:

ya I guess dates R important b/c like if idk maybe my bbff forgets the date we started going out I couldn't yell at him like on R month anniv u no? I <3 dates. They r good for bbffs and bgffs. idk. whtvr.

like, whatever.

(I write books for teens)

My bad!

:rofl: ... I realized where you were coming from ... just not always where they are coming from {as in what planet)

:toast:

FERPA laws cover this, and that's a good thing. New laws on educational privacy cover so much more than they did five years ago.

Posting students' work is certainly prohibited under current laws. If I were the OP, I'd seek a deletion of this thread. I cringed when I saw it.

Let me be clear, however that I have been careful to not post anything which would indicate a student's identity and have only posted very small excerpts at that.
However, your point is well taken.:)

It's your university's job to familiarize you with FERPA. You should never post students' work (whether or not you identify them) without their consent. FERPA covers this and so much more. These laws have become really tight in the past several years--fierce about protecting student privacy.

That includes prohibiting posting their work on the 'net for a few chuckles. Although it probably won't happen, if this student were to find this thread, he/she would have an actionable case against you and the university.

A: It's too soon to tell...

:spray:

and I weep for the future.

But it is nice to be able to laugh at the idiots behind their backs.

like, that's where guys buy you stuff, right? :shrug:

or very very bad

:rofl:

:9

Oh my.

I honestly thought that was written (badly) by someone in grade school - that is just pathetic

they're so fun to read (even if a bit scary. So many of today's college students are stoopid.) The one on slavery was amazing. :eyes:
You other TAs, join in too!

I haven't been able to grade all day, but just sat down to work at it and a wave of nausea came over me LOL ...not really, but something like that. .... I think I'll die if I have to ook at another paper ... on second thought, I'll just go to bed.

:)

that "Social Studies" departments are, at the "request" of administrators (Read: Bosses are telling their employees), completely throwing out dates, chronologies, and factual details in favor of "themes". Indeed, history itself is losing ground to psychology, sociology, anthropology, current events, etc.
Also, administrators no longer want teachers to be the actual, you know, TEACHERS. No; STUDENTS are to learn from EACH OTHER. Favorite aphorism: "Be a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage."

We reap what we sow.

I still get the "why" of it - if nothing else, knowing the dates helps to know what influenced what, and why things happen. I used to come up with various mnemonics to help me remember the date of things.

In college, my housemate was a history TA and I read a decent amount of the papers he had to grade. Wow, not only are people ignorant of some really basic history, but they are not very good bullshitters when they don't know.

I wonder sometimes if a lot of them grow up to be freepers - bad spelling, lack of knowledge about why certain events lead to later events, faulty logic, etc. I had a guy on another board recently tell me that the Iran-Contra scandal was the Democrats' fault because they were the majority in Congress at the time. Wow. We're screwn!

I'm sitting here grading papers for a legal research class that I teach. My students are 1st year law students. And their answers aren't much more insightful, sadly.