[voice post]

[gothams_reckoning]

[The sound of a deep, muffled voice begins speaking as if addressing a large room:]

There has been a rather disturbing lack of cooperation in all of my political science classes. The lack of debate and the apathy towards the state of the world has been very disappointing.

As a result: all political science students must turn in an assignment in a week's time.

The assignment is: Why Democracy Is a Lie, and Why All Governments Are Unjust Tools of the Elite Used to Destroy the Working Man.

All papers must reference at least one government-related atrocity and use statistic to estimate how many have perished at the hands of their government of choice.

[And suddenly Darcy's voice pipes up.]

Woah, woah, woah. Should we give them something a little more open ended? And less...depressing? We want them writing papers, not spiraling into a fit of depression.

What about a paper on Obama vs Romney? They can defend one candidate.

[There is a low, muffled sigh of frustration before Bane adds:]

Or a paper about Romney or Obama. Either is fine.

Comments

[everything_is_dangerous]

Not to be rude, professor, but I think I'm picking up on a bit of personal bias in that first prompt. Though it could be an interesting topic - particularly if the essay was allowed to argue the opposite side instead or as well.

[gothams_reckoning]

The opposite side has been represented well enough by the government and thousands of textbooks.

[everything_is_dangerous]

Textbooks don't generally bother trying to defend the existence of government. Specific forms, yes, government in general, no. At least none that I've seen.

[gothams_reckoning]

They are written by those who belong to such governments, and are biased.

[everything_is_dangerous]

My general point was that the bias means they don't see a need to defend the existence of government, so much as their specific form. So an essay defending the existence of government in the general sense would be forced to at least have some original ideas.

Besides, about the only decent thing I ever got out of that Rhetoric class was that arguments work a lot better when you acknowledge the other side's points.

[Leila might have liked that class more than she's letting on, because as far as she's concerned the entire argument is completely academic. She's planning to write on the anti-government side anyway just for the challenge.]

[didiscareyouyet]

Uhh...is your class always like that?

[gothams_reckoning]

Yes.

[didiscareyouyet]

And people still go?

[gothams_reckoning]

Yes. If they did not, they would fail the course.

[6collegecredits]

I'm working on it.

[didiscareyouyet]

It's scary.

[6collegecredits]

Eh, I've seen worse professors.

[didiscareyouyet]

You did? Like who?

[6collegecredits]

Ones who don't give options.

[p_a_r_a_d_o_x]

Interesting subject for an assignment.

I will take the government one. [He had enough few that Obama/Romney/Elections stuff for a lifetimes, thanks.]

[gothams_reckoning]

Excellent. Be sure to have it completed within a week.

[p_a_r_a_d_o_x]

No problem. [He will have it done by tomorrow.] Do you work well with Miss Darcy? It looks like you two have very different points of view.

[gothams_reckoning]

We have different approaches. It provides balance.

[p_a_r_a_d_o_x]

It also provides very interesting classes, sir.

[gothams_reckoning]

Then all the better. Perhaps then more students will pay attention.

[p_a_r_a_d_o_x]

Oh I'm sure they will.

For one reason or the other.

[6collegecredits]

Really?

[p_a_r_a_d_o_x]

Yes. Is that wrong? Sounds like an interesting assignment.

[likethetragedy]

How many pages do you want on the first one?

[gothams_reckoning]

Four. Double-spaced. And none of the humongous margins I see some students have tried to pull.

[likethetragedy]

You're already giving us double spacing. I wouldn't want it to be too easy.

[gothams_reckoning]

If I made it single-spacing, no one would hand theirs in. As it is, I am already expecting several students to hand me two pages or less.

[likethetragedy]

You must spend a lot of time being disappointed in your students.

[gothams_reckoning]

Only those who are lazy or unwilling to learn.

[likethetragedy]

That's at least half of us.

[gothams_reckoning]

And that half will be graded accordingly.

[likethetragedy]

Fair enough. [Aka she'll stop trying to get a rise out of him now.]

[nonesodangerous]

The first will suffice - the second option seems a little childish, if I may say so. This isn't high school, after all.

[gothams_reckoning]

Perhaps. I am accused of being 'biased' with my first topic, however.

[nonesodangerous]

That isn't necessarily a bad thing. It will do us all good to attempt to understand the logic behind another person's bias.

[6collegecredits]

It never hurts to have options.

[Childish. Hmph.]

[nonesodangerous]

Not unless it makes more work for those who teach us.

[6collegecredits]

In this case, it really doesn't.

[nonesodangerous]

Having to grade two separate sets of papers cannot be convenient.