Every new generation of young parents in my country had to participate in the ideological battle of whether to place a napkin in the bathtub while bathing the baby.

“Why do we need to do that?” new Moms and Dads moaned. “It’s messy, it’s annoying, and it makes absolutely no sense at all.”

“You have to do that!” Grandmas and Great-Grandmas responded. “I always did it, and so did my mother, and her mother. Everybody places a napkin at the bottom of the tub when bathing a baby, so you should do, too.”

The reason behind the napkin tradition is actually very simple. In the XIXth century, children in the country-side were bathed in wooden bathtubs. Those tubs were of low quality, and babies ran the risk of getting splinters into their backsides if no napkin was placed at the bottom of the tub. When the tubs made of metal and later of plastic appeared, people still retained the old tradition, even though it had no practical value any more.

I’ve had my own version of the bathtub fallacy. I’ve never allowed my students to submit their essays by email. I persecuted them with repetitive enjoinders never ever to submit anything to me by email. These enjoinders were delivered in a voice that made email submissions sound like some sort of a crime against humanity.

And you know why I did it? Because as an undergrad and then a grad student I had professors who flatly refused to accept email submissions. So I just imitated them unthinkingly without stopping to consider why I was doing it.

Then, I read on Jonathan’s blog that he accepts email submissions of student essays. Jonathan is an important role model for me, so I decided to conduct an experiment that would allow me to figure out whether I genuinely preferred paper submissions to email ones.

This week, students in both of my courses submitted their essays by email. And you know what? I loved it. This cut the weary work of essay grading at least in half. I can write very long comments, which is important to me because I work hard to improve the way my students write. I didn’t have to try to fit my comments on the small paper margins any more. Also, I think students are now more likely to read my comments because they don’t need to decipher my imperfect handwriting. And, of course, I type faster than I write.

Finally, I have been able to realize that there is no actual need for the napkin in this metaphorical bathtub. Thank you, Jonathan!