It's that time of year. Yes, when the world falls in love, but also when I am grading research papers. This is a solemn and noble duty, and, as Inspector Clouseau once said, "A part of life's rich pageant." :)Based on what I've read so far, I can assure anyone reading this that young people can still think like scholars and write intelligently--that wasn't exclusive to our generation, although I have chatted with some adults who believe it was.
I say, if an eighteen-year-old can push away the cell phone and the text messaging, the computer, the television, and sit down to write a paper which assures me that Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov and Camus' Meursault share an existential isolation, and can proceed with a lucid argument supported by examples, then the world of scholarship is in good shape.
So I am grateful for my scholars, even if I am not grateful for the pile of papers that seems never to grow smaller. Maybe I am the one in existential isolation . . .
2 comments:
Truly, I think we forget our intelligence as we grow older and go out into the world, not the other way around. Yes, we gain in experience, but sometimes we get stuck in a rut, locked into a mentality or simply stop trying.
Students are still eager, optimistic and think they can do anything. Were that as we got older we could all keep that attitude!
And they seem so much more CONFIDENT than I remember being at eighteen. Maybe they'll fix all the world's problems. :)
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