Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Stoopid freshmen

I have graded 49 out of 69 mid-term exams. I have 7 Fs already and no As. The other TAs thought they were being too easy (or that I was being too harsh), but after reading several of my exams, they came to the conclusion that my students are just stupid. Very stupid. Now, I do have a higher percentage of freshmen than the other TAs, so maybe that has something to do with it. Still, these are bad. I had one student claim that Germany is between Great Britain and France on the map, one claimed that after Italy united it became a superpower. Apparently the peasantry of Europe went to bed one night and woke up the next morning as proletariat. The freeing of the serfs in Russia caused servants in Europe to want more political freedom. And, obviously the majority if my students are firm Marxists because I've had several of them tell me about the successful European proletariat revolution of the 19thc. Although, I'm at a complete loss as to why none of them provided me with dates or countries for that. And finally, a direct quote. "The bourgeoisie filled their sails with the steel breeze of industrialization as it came to Europe."

Have a great day, and remember, the zemstvas were not created by Napoleon!

2 comments:

Beth said...

Oh wow. That's. Just bad.

Beth said...

I'm marking papers now too and it is sucking my will to live. Good luck marking the rest of yours -- I hope there are better ones to come!