It is even more imminent...

[damont]

Tony's H.S. graduation announcements were mailed out today. Yet another step towards that momentous day.

On a related note, he got an English essay back this week. It is a masterpiece of high school level academic bullshit; a tale told by a student, full of words and punctuation, and signifying... NOTHING. It is impossible to tell for sure just how much of the source material he actually read. He got an A-minus; had he more time/motivation for proofreading, the "-minus" wouldn't be there.

I am ashamed, though not surprised, that so little has changed in this particular aspect of the educational system since my high school days. (stealthcomic, you have your work cut out for you.) On the other hand, it is nice to see that he's learned how to game the system with reasonable success. You have learned this lesson well, grasshopperkillernurd.

Comments

[stealthcomic.livejournal.com]

If he can write reasonably well, it will be assumed that he can reason well. I am certain that killernurd's essay was ten times better than his peers, which probably figured into his grade.

I can tell you, I do indeed have my work cut out for me. Part of it is the challenge of writing an assessment that students don't feel threatened by and part of it is the major effort of grade 150 papers at all. Sometimes the thought overwhelms me.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

*winces in sympathy*

Not that we didn't warn you. There's a reason that, in colleges, the first job outsourced to TA's and such is grading. Ecccccchhh.

[nazrynn.livejournal.com]

My aunts and older brother sat around at Thanksgiving, helping my younger brother grade his biology class' papers. Kid's got a teaching job now, in Baltimore.... Just got his Masters in December. Whee.

[theimp79.livejournal.com]

When I took AP Bio my sophomore year of high school, the instructor gave us an assignment that we were supposed to work on during the whole semester. We were supposed to pick a topic that was Bio related, write about said topic, and then design an experiment or study to prove/disprove something about that topic. I did mine on Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Tomato plants. I wrote it in one weekend, the monday before it was due. This weekend included research performed at Ft. Detrick in the USAMRIID, developing the experiment, and writing the paper.
I got a B+ on mine, and the poor girl sitting next to me in class who slaved on her paper all semester and worked really really hard, got a C-. I was happy for myself, but I felt really bad for her.

[theimp79.livejournal.com]

This weekend included research performed at Ft. Detrick in the USAMRIID, developing the experiment, and writing the paper.
That should read "in the USAMRIID library" but I got a phone call in the middle of writing and left out a word . . .

cool

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

One more step toward that moment!