Materialistic Object
The way I kept my sanity while reading about 100 handwritten student essays in one sitting today (for our departmental reading) was by
* drinking a ton of coffee,
* writing silly notes occasionally to Adrienne, my friend and Shakespeare scholar colleague (in other words, acting just like the off-task students that I have to remind to pay attention; I mean for god's sake, we are adults!), and
* jotting down lines from student essays that kept me awake. (By the way, each essay was on the same topic, namely materialism.)
Here are 4 of the best. You choose the winner:
a) "Technology is bad for people but good for society."
b) "Affluenza is the sickness in which a person over-shops."
c) "People are living off of the good things in life, such as television, the internet, and even makeup for women."
d) "In today's society, people are often pleasured by materialistic objects."
Line d) was the opening of the paper, and I eagerly read on, hoping the paper would be a unique take on sex toys, but alas, I was disappointed to read yet another tract on our overreliance on cars and computers.
3 comments:
I'll take B for one thousand...
;-)
Oh I agree..over-shopping, that's my disease, but without the afflunza. By the way is this "high school?" I will be licensed to teach high school in one more year, and your scaring me.
No, it's COLLEGE!
But don't be scared. There were a lot of GOOD essays. There are a lot of people who bemoan the state of education, but I'm not one of them. I see most of my students as having a lot of potential; some choose to tap into it, others don't. I was a late-bloomer academically (well, that's a nice way of saying I was a slacker partier as an undergrad); but thank god a few professors believed in me and gave me a little encouragement for my modicum of success--because eventually I went back to graduate school and, as a grown-up, thrived.
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