Thursday, November 19, 2009

Proud teacher

I'm grading some surprisingly good undergraduate papers on party nominations right now. Just thought I'd mention a few highlights:
  • With regards to the current Senate race in Colorado, one of my students notes that President Obama is heavily backing Michael Bennet (and even may have played a role in his selection for the Senate) while John McCain pushed for Jane Norton to run on the Republican ticket. The student is arguing that next year's Colorado Senate race is a proxy war between Obama and McCain. I like it.
  • Another student described politics thusly: "Politics remains in many ways a jungle of underexposure, ululating purism, and inner machinations." Extra credit for using "ululating" in a paper.

4 comments:

ari said...

These are papers by students at the university at which you teach? I find that...surprising.

Seth Masket said...

The quality has risen since your departure. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

ari said...

The quality has risen since your departure.

On the one hand, that seems predictable. Lots of reforms, and lots of money, in the realm of undergraduate education, not to mention all those shiny buildings, and the general appeal of the city, must be pretty attractive.

On the other hand, I wonder if the uptick in quality will survive the downturn in the economy. It's a pretty expensive place to send one's kid to school. And although my absence is a selling point, I'm not sure it's enough.

Seth Masket said...

Keep in mind, this is hardly a random sample of my students' work.