#AT LEAST DO THAT

[echodrops]

I am really struggling to understand the thought process of some of my students right now, and I don't even know what can be done to rectify the issue.

The last unit of my five-week summer literature class is on a personal essay from Joan Didion, called "Goodbye to All That."

Somehow, despite the unit literally being called "Creative Nonfiction with Joan Didion," me providing a PDF copy of the reading titled "Goodbye to All That" by Joan Didion, and even having an entire interactive video lesson on Joan Didion herself...

Somehow a student still turned in a reading response about "Good-Bye to All That" by Robert Graves. A nearly 400-page-long WWI autobiography.

So not only did this student not do the actually assigned reading, he also actively ignored every single Canvas page in the entire unit, completed a video-based assignment without listening to a word of it (apparently), and then, realizing that he had to find something to say about the unit, frantically googled "Goodbye to All That" and made up an entire two paragraph response based on a book he absolutely did not read.

When I asked the student how this mix-up could possibly have happened, he insisted he did read the PDF file from our class (weird, because Joan Didion's essay is not about WWI!) but just mixed up the author's name in his response.

I... What...?

At what point do you just have to start thinking "This is an aggressive refusal to read anything put in front of you"? Like, come on. Couldn't even read the name of the unit? Couldn't even engage with a Youtube video long enough to see a picture of Joan Didion and realize the writer for the unit is a woman definitely not named Robert Graves?

And at what point did common sense just not kick in? This is a five-week class; each unit is 3-4 weekdays max. Could the professor possibly be expecting the class to read a 400-page autobiography in three days, when everything else we're read has been less than 30 pages?

This is actually so concerning to me. How can we have college students that literally can't read?

Please... someone save me...

[chaserofstarsandtheabyss]

Oh? You’re worried about being accused of being a bigot? Did you complete the anti-discrimination training that was 30 minutes long? No? You thought it was stupid and too much work? Interesting, interesting…

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[thought-begone]

I guess the real glorious evolution was the homoerotic yearning we made along the way

[pangur-and-grim]

we have to write poems in my creative writing certificate program, so I pieced something together from Belphie's medical reports

[nothazellevesque]

a man self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc yesterday. not just any man. an active member of the us air force. he live streamed his death, and said that he refused to be complicit in a genocide any longer. he said that compared to what palestinians were facing every day, setting himself alight was nothing.

let me reiterate. an active duty air force member burned himself alive because he was so disgusted by what the us government was openly supporting. he live-streamed his own suicide, so the whole world could bear witness as a man in his military uniform set himself on fire to protest his government’s complicity in the horrors that we have all been forced to watch happen in real time. he became a new horror. footage of the immolation blurs him out the moment the fire catches, but you can hear him. it is over in seconds, really, but you can hear him screaming. he shouts “free palestine” until his body physically cannot make any sounds other than guttural screams of agony. and then he falls silent. a police officer arrives and points a gun at his still burning body, shouting at him to get down on the ground. and it is over.

his name was Aaron Bushnell. he was twenty five years old. and he isn’t here anymore because the political ruling class has decided that genocide is perfectly fine as long as it preserves imperialism. in the coming days, people will try to discredit him. to say that he was mentally unstable. they will try to bury his actions to save face and defend israel’s propaganda. do not let them. aaron knew what he was doing. he knew what he was doing when he put on his military uniform, set up his twitch stream, and made his final walk up to the embassy. he knew what would happen to him when he flicked that lighter. do not let them forget. aaron’s blood is on the hands of the political ruling class.

[goldensunset]

advice i think we should tell children is that when adults say stuff like ‘now that i’m an adult i get really excited about stuff like coffee tables and bathrooms and rugs etc’ they don’t mean ‘and now i don’t care about blorbo and squimbus from my childhood tv shows anymore’ bc your average adult still loves all the same pop culture stuff they always did; they just have a greater appreciation for the mundane as well. growing up just means you can enjoy life twice as much now. you can get really excited about a new stuffed animal AND about a new kitchen sponge. peace and love

[technovillain]

i come from the universe where everything is the same except disney heroines get like an ounce of their fathers' obviously dominant genes and their clothes are like 80% more historically accurate. it's beautiful here.

[thelaurenshippen]

watching bridgerton and obviously there were a lot of things wrong with the way socializing has worked in the past, but honestly the idea of a "calling hour" is so appealing. office hours for friendship. you can show up unannounced at my home between 1 and 3pm. you must leave by 3pm. I may give you a pastry. lets bring that back

[beaft]

it is legit bizarre to me how hard video game creators and film directors and showrunners try to pretend that fat people don't exist. can you think of the last time you saw a fat person in a lead role? god forbid a fat woman? i can walk down the street or go into a shop or restaurant and see fat people everywhere but then i switch on the tv and suddenly it's like a glimpse into an alternate universe where no one has a bmi over 24. insidious and weird

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[lazylittledragon]

some domestic shadowlachs <33

[humming-fly]

I love how Gerald was trying to keep Shadow from spoiling anything about the future meanwhile literally everything Shadow says and does around Maria is the biggest death flag ever

[marfian]

So act 3 huh

[hinamie]

trick or treat!

[eastgaysian]