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From the Final Exams

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“The Muslim people in Spain built beautiful synagogues. Everywhere else they build mosques but in Spain they built synagogues because of how tolerant they were.”

” Unlike in Latin America, in the US there is no racism.”

“While the US did eliminate most of the indigenous populations, that wasn’t such a big deal.”

“Lope de Vega’s poetry shows a lot of self-hatred. I’d hate myself too if I belonged to a culture that was destroying the indigenous civilizations in the New World!”

“It is not surprising that the US supported Franco’s dictatorship in Spain. It isn’t the first dumb thing we did internationally nor the last. You’ve got to be real smart first to arm the Taliban and then to fight against it in Afghanistan!”

“As early as 1891 Jose Marti warned that the United States might invade Cuba. He was right because the US had been invading other countries for centuries.”

“Unlike Latin American identities, the US identity was formed with no European influence.”

“Everything bad in the world happens because of religion. “

23 responses to “From the Final Exams”

  1. Brittany-Ann Avatar
    Brittany-Ann

    “Lope de Vega’s poetry shows a lot of self-hatred. I’d hate myself too if I belonged to a culture that was destroying the indigenous civilizations in the New World!”

    Um. *cough*

    Every now and then I think about teaching. And, you know, I’d definitely be one of those professors that would underline passages like this and write snarky comments in the margins.

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  2. the twisted spinster Avatar
    the twisted spinster

    For some reason I suddenly have this throbbing headache.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to traumatize people with these stories!

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  3. Saia Sikira Avatar
    Saia Sikira

    Your students are so ingenuous they scare me…

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Yes, there is this intense earnestness that is very endearing.

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  4. Ol. Avatar
    Ol.

    I have such a conservative view on pedagogy all of a sudden that I surprise myself.

    Sometimes students should take notes in a large lecture class for three hours in a row, digest them, and then expressing their ideas and opinions.

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  5. hkatz Avatar
    hkatz

    “Unlike Latin American identities, the US identity was formed with no European influence.”

    It was Martians who helped form the U.S. identity. They came down in their little spaceships and founded the U.S. in the early 1600s so that by 1891 the U.S. had been invading other countries for centuries.

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    1. Lamestllama Avatar
      Lamestllama

      I thought the US didn’t start invading other countries until 1812. 79 years is hardly centuries.

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      1. hkatz Avatar
        hkatz

        Read this excerpt from the original post:

        “As early as 1891 Jose Marti warned that the United States might invade Cuba. He was right because the US had been invading other countries for centuries.”

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      2. thevenerablecorvex Avatar
        thevenerablecorvex

        In fairness, American revolutionaries entered Canada as early as 1775, but given the political circumstances of the time (both were colonies of Britain), it’s debatable whether that actually counts as a “invading another country.”

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  6. Sister Avatar
    Sister

    This is so embarrassingly ignorant that I hope you are failing every single ‘author’ of these gems. If these people end up with university degrees, the value of education becomes almost non-existent.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      This is just a Freshman course, and we are fighting against a lifetime of ignorance. By graduation, we will have made completely different people out of them.

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  7. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    I am wondering whether the students would have been better informed at the end of the class if it had been in person rather than online.

    Speaking of saving money by offering classes online, as you mentioned earlier, the temptation is likely to be to let class size grow to 1000 or more, along with the pressure to then use multiple choice testing. This is my big fear in this situation. Letting you control class size for the first few years gets the foot in the door.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “I am wondering whether the students would have been better informed at the end of the class if it had been in person rather than online.”

      https://clarissasblog.com/2009/12/14/more-funny-things-from-student-essays/
      https://clarissasblog.com/2009/12/12/from-my-students-final-essays/

      This was the same course in the traditional format. Find 10 differences, as they say. 🙂 🙂

      “the temptation is likely to be to let class size grow to 1000 or more, along with the pressure to then use multiple choice testing”

      – I guess things at other universities are very different from mine. I’ve been fighting to raise the cap on this course (in the traditional format) from 35 to 45 for I don’t know how long. The university is resisting like a bunch of guerrilla fighters. 🙂 And I can’t imagine anybody suggesting to me what kind of assessment to use. We are goven absolute freedom in any aspect of instruction.

      I love my university.

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      1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        By the way, it isn’t like anybody is applauding my online course. I was berated by my midpoint tenure committee for developing it. And my Chair was berated for supporting me in it.

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  8. David Gendron Avatar
    David Gendron

    “The Muslim people in Spain built beautiful synagogues” hahahahahaha! 😉

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  9. Jonathan Avatar
    Jonathan

    “It is not surprising that the US supported Franco’s dictatorship in Spain. It isn’t the first dumb thing we did internationally nor the last. You’ve got to be real smart first to arm the Taliban and then to fight against it in Afghanistan!”

    That almost makes sense if you think about it. With just a few *minor* corrections. Ha! I also agree Martí was right.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Yes, I agree with the student’s statement, too.

      It isn’t just bad statements that I include. 🙂

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  10. Leah Jane Avatar
    Leah Jane

    “Unlike Latin American identities, the US identity was formed with no European influence.”
    If it weren’t for the pure sincerity of your students, I would (tongue in cheek) suggest that whoever wrote that gem make a name for themselves in historical revisionism. 😛

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  11. Lindsay Avatar
    Lindsay

    I’d hate myself too if I belonged to a culture that was destroying the indigenous civilization of the New World!

    Oh my gosh!

    What do you suppose this person would do if you informed them they actually did belong to just such a culture?

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      How do people manage to go through secondary education in the US and not know this?

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      1. Lindsay Avatar
        Lindsay

        Well, this aspect of our history, incredibly important and fundamental as it is, is really not taught about in our schools. At least, not explicitly. A perceptive student might notice it between the lines — ask questions like, why is it that Native Americans are always there, at the frontier, wherever the frontier is at any given point in history, but are no longer there, not in the numbers they used to be or (usually) living in the way they used to, in the lands settled by European immigrants? Particularly ugly episodes, especially when the federal government was involved, are mentioned, but mostly the expansion of the US is treated as though it were expansion into a vast unpopulated wilderness. Pioneers, railroads, and the like. Not much mention of the fact that people were already living there, or of the lengths our government went to to drive them off. It wasn’t really *hidden* from us, at least not in the way it would’ve been if I had gone to school during, say, the 1950s when US history was taught in a much more nationalistic manner, but it was certainly deemphasized.

        This is what I remember, anyway. Other people might well have had different experiences.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          I’m kind of speechless right now. Is this true? How is this possible??

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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