Roel van Leeuwen fantasizes about female students writing their essays on their breasts in Braille:
25th-Apr-2007 09:37 pm
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Just finished marking the RELS101 test, possibly the easiest test in the world to pass. 32% failed. Oh ye gods, what have we done wrong? Oh Lord my God, did we err when we expected them to read the course text? Did we aim too high when we expected them to have listened in class and tutorials? Evidently so- one of the questions was whether the ancient Israelite religion was once and always monotheistic…I spent an entire tutorial on the bloody subject and countless diversions at other times- and still people got it wrong (say after me “Asherah, the consort of Yahweh. Yahweh, the competitor of Baal”). They got most of the multi-choice part pretty okay, but they really fell down when they had to write for themselves and some of the howlers they made, Jeezus… (write out 100 times “The Gospel of St. John is not part of the Torah”). It would help if they could read the questions as well- when asked to discuss the religious context that the historical Jesus lived in, I do not want a catalogue of his miracles which culminates in his bodily resurrection, nor do I need to read stuff like “Jesus was the son of God and his father was Joseph and Mary”. It does my head in, really, it does. However, credit where credit is due. We have a number of quite committed Christians in the paper, including those working towards ministry or missionary posts, and they did pretty well. In fact, from memory, none of them failed (even if none of them excelled, either). The ones that are having the most difficulty are the young ‘uns who didn’t grow up with a conception of religion. There is a glimmer of hope though (and yahoo for that). The top mark in the class, a respectable 91%, is held by a geeky young lass with a remarkably dowdy taste in clothing but nonetheless has ‘that look’ of someone fundamentally interesting. I shall be keeping an eye on her. Well, one thing is obvious. I have to change my tutoring approach in the weeks to come and work towards lifting the state of the game some pegs higher that what it is. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. If so many fail, then I am obviously doing something wrong . The next segment is on Hinduism and Buddhism, so that could be…interesting… Oh well, time to go elsewhere. Peace out
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Comments 25th-Apr-2007 08:25 pm (UTC)
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*grin*
Re: the reading the question thing, it’s easy to imagine their thought process. “What religious context did the historical Jesus live in? Heeeey, I know about Jesus! Maybe that’s what they want to hear!” Its good to reflect on your tutoring style after these things, but remember you aren’t the only factor influencing this. Probably most of those who fail don’t turn up to tutorials. And there’s always the dreaded factor that causes students to do poorly – they thought the test would be easy. |
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25th-Apr-2007 08:32 pm (UTC)
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Hmm. I should qualify that to say that despite my use of “they”, I don’t see students as a homogeneous lot at all. Promise. It’s just so danged easy to slip into the language of “they”. :/ | |
27th-Apr-2007 01:21 am (UTC)
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You said: “The top mark in the class, a respectable 91%, is held by a geeky young lass with a remarkably dowdy taste in clothing but nonetheless has ‘that look’ of someone fundamentally interesting. I shall be keeping an eye on her”
And echoes the advice I shall give my son – watch the clever wall flowers – you just know they’re really dirty (and will probably keep you well fed too). Regards getting them to learn – spot quizzes?, perhaps some practical historical christianity, including duckings, self flagellation (then you can’t be held accountable) and a bit of torture – play Barry Manilow at them. |
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29th-Apr-2007 10:43 am (UTC)
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tits, everyone pays attention to tits!
Write key words on your breasts and I am sure the class will pay more attention? (I know your a guy, nothing like a bitta man breat tho ah!) |
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29th-Apr-2007 11:51 am (UTC)
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Hmmm…maybe they could write their essays on their breasts instead. In Braille, of course. Oh, the joys of taking your marking home with you then… | |
30th-Apr-2007 08:03 pm (UTC)
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oh oh oh oh let me know how it goes!!!
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