From a student’s essay:

A typical grandmother never brings stress to the life of a family, only love and patience.

What does one need to do to make them stop offering these inane generalizations in the midst of essays?

7 responses to “A Typical Generalization About a Typical Grandmother”

  1. el Avatar
    el

    Look at the bright side: probably from the generalizations you can sometimes explicitly see US hidden cultural assumptions. Or rather, the assumptions of students’ cultural backgrounds.

    And surprises are nice sometimes. After posts about terrorism, I felt happier reading about the loving and patient grandmother. 🙂

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      OK, OK, point well taken. 🙂 I will try to lighten up.

      It’s the last week of the semester, hence the gloom.

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  2. GMP Avatar

    S/he should have written “A stereotypical grandmother…”

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      That would make sense. 🙂

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  3. cliff arroyo Avatar

    As a natural born smartass, I would have to fight off the urge to scrawl: “A typical student never brings insight to an assignment, only cliches and banality”

    I wouldn’t actually write it (or say it to the student in question) but it would pass thru my mind a few (dozen) times…..

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar

      Yes, I had a very similar impulse. 🙂 🙂

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  4. No Justice | Clarissa's Blog Avatar

    […] have to say, I’d much rather read about perfect grandmothers than see this in a student’s […]

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