2005-06-21
oh, in case you didn't know, I'm a giant dork.
Hot Hot Straight Off the Presses!!
Here is something that's been twisting my knickers into knots for the past couple 'o days:
I'm a TA, right now, for an online course (took over from another person, yadayada I already said all this: long story short the course is 12 weeks and I'm around for the last 4). The course is an intro one, called "Encountering World Religions". To give you some background on my GRAND expertise, my two major traditions of study are Christianity and Hinduism, I have TAed an intro course on Eastern Religions (twice, the same course!) and have earned an A in two graduate level courses on Islam. Thus, I feel capable of tackling the material of this course (which is, to boot, ridiculously simplex).
[may I insert, a second, that I actually totally love singing & dansing along to the song "I've Been Thinking About You" by Londonbeat. I know it's a no good horrible very bad song, but... enh.]
So anyhow, the course is taught by a man of the kind that is hair-raisingly condescending to people of my kind -- the kind whose favorite Beatle, with a gun to their head, is Paul McCartney [if that is too cryptic, which it is, see my notes from dinahsoars] -- or at least upon first impression that is what you would think. I.e. he seems to think I'm a twit.
And thus, in the composing and organizing of the final exam, he assigned to me the following question to write a general answer key to:
"In what way has your perception of religion and religions- your own and the others studied in this course - been affected by this course? [This is a thinking question so do not try to find an answer in the readings but you can draw upon them for illustration.] [10 points, 500 words]"
And thus, I became furious. I am sure that this is the worst exam question I have ever read, and, even though a friend I consulted says he doesn't think it's that dire, I am pretty insulted. Over-reaction day? fine. I've always loved that holiday.
And so, this is the "key" I finally came up with:
"As you all are probably aware, I can�t really provide a list of possible answers for this question. So, after much deliberation and wringing of hands, I have settled on the following:
I think it would be best to allot points according to: level of engagement with the material, coherence, amount of thought that appears to be invested in the answer, and accuracy (with regards to course material referenced). In another nutshell (kindly suggested by our friend A***):
- Clear, well-constructed argument + examples,reference to course reading = A
- Clear, wellconstructed argument + no examples from reading = B
- Not so clear argument, no examples, no reference to course material = C
- No argument, or very short essay, no examples = D
- Nothing coherent written or not related to question = F
Have a nice day."
I'm not especially worried that any students from the class might stumble across this, as I would tell them this same information as they were in the process of writing the exam.
My hope is that at least one of the other TAs gets a giggle out of this ridiculosity.
pansycline at 4:13 p.m.