English teacher shares a snap of a student’s strange essay but not everyone agrees with the D grade

News.com.au ^ | 02/11/2020 | Emilia Mazza

[Responsibility2nd]

A photo of an English essay has gone viral and divided the internet after it was shared by the teacher who marked it.

Professor Alexis Pereira, who is based in New York, took to Twitter to post an image that revealed details of a paper written by a student, which had nothing to do with the assigned subject.

“Teaching my first English course this semester has been rewarding but I don’t know what to do with this student,” he tweeted.

The essay, which has been awarded a D, comes with a comment written by Prof Pereira in red declaring the student’s efforts were way off the mark.

“This was supposed to be about Tom from The Great Gatsby! The book we are reading!”

The essay submitted by the student was titled: “What Exactly Does Tom Want with Jerry?” – a paper about cartoon characters, rather than those from the assigned reading.

“In the Looney Tunes cinematic universe, many of the cartoon nemeses have a very clear goal,” the essay begins.

 

“Wild (sic) Coyote wants to eat the Roadrunner. Pepe le Pue (sic) wants to impregnate Penelope. Elmer Fudd wants to shoot Bugs (and who doesn’t?).

“But it is unclear what if anything Tom wants to do with Jerry.”

The essay continues: “Submitted for the approval of English 101, I propose that Tom actually has no interest in doing anything with Jerry, but instead fulfilling his class role as ‘house cat’.

“Heathcliff, Top Cat, Garfield, Sylvester – these are all famous cats, most of them cartoon.”

The tweet of the essay along with the teacher’s hilarious comments has gone viral since being shared and at the time of writing has over 49,400 retweets and more than 301,600 likes..”

[bgill]

He’s not funny at all. I’d have turned the paper into the principal (dean in this case). What that student did was flip off the prof in written form. He didn’t read the book assigned but thought he could charm with bs. A zero is too high a grade.

[StoneRainbow68]

Guys, it’s clearly fake. There’s no ‘student”. Come on.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I lost interest in most fiction after my 20s and when I discovered non-fiction. I became an avid reader of history (American, in particular), technology development, civilization, biography, and politics. The intersection of these areas is quite fascinating.

You are right — it is certainly NOT taught in schools. It’s something you need to learn on your own after completing your formal education.

I wouldn’t quite go so far as to say “Fiction does not edify a man,” though.

[dfwgator]

I love the TimeGhost videos, watching the “Between 2 Wars” series, it’s fascinating to learn all the stuff.

[Leep]

This

[Fresh Wind]

A friend’s grandson, in get-high skool, was assigned a Hardy Boys book as a reading assignment in his English class.

[LeonardFMason]

Is AOC upset about being exposed like this?

[Mariner]

History, philosophy, physics, biography (history), political analysis are all rich writing.

And often written at a level above fictional novels.

But for some reason curricula all center on fiction, and it’s a feminine construct.

Who cares about the character Gatsby?

Who cares about the Great Migrations preceding the Dark Ages?

Let students read what they are interested in.

[Little Pig]

I’m pretty sure he was contrasting the Warner characters, who *do* have fairly clear motivations, with the MGM character Tom who has less-clear motivations.

[Verginius Rufus]

At least the student knows the correct plural of “nemesis.”

[21twelve]

“The kid is obviously a wise guy, However, I think he has a future in comedy-writing.”

Back in Spanish class (High School?) we had to do a short oral report - but it was in English iirc (except that doesn’t make sense. But I don’t think I would remember the story if the guy had read it in Spanish - so...)

Anyway - his report was about Spanish shoe laces. After they kill the bull in the bull fight they turn his hide into shoelaces. That was the fall quarter.

For the spring quarter it was French class. The same goof-ball stood up.

“My report is on French shoelaces. They import them from Spain.” He sat down. Of course all the students got it and we were cracking up. The teacher didn’t.

[zeugma]

I would also point out that Tom and Jerry are not Loony Toons characters. If I recall correctly, they were MGM cartoons.

[CharlesWayneCT]

It isn’t even a GOOD essay. If you are going to go off-topic, do it with excellence. If you can’t even spell your characters, you deserve an F. Especially if you can’t follow simply grammatical rules.

Is this what we are sending to college these days? This kid should not have taken a student loan, he’s never getting a job good enough to pay it off. He should learn to code.

[CharlesWayneCT]

There is little evidence in the cartoon history that he was actually trying to have sex with her, much less having a goal of having children through her. It was a “romance” thing.

The way it is written, he was a rapist villain. That isn’t really what the story is about.

[CharlesWayneCT]

In the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, the kids are writing a book report on Peter Rabbit, and Linus decides he’d rather write about Robin Hood, so he ties the Robin Hood story loosely back to the Peter Rabbit story.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for correcting that. I remember that now that you point it out. It was purely a silly romance thing and nothing to do with sex. The author is nuts.

[SoftballMominVA]

In almost 25 years of teaching, I gave a NG 4 times. Believe me, no one ever said “you let —— do it,” as the second essay typically wasn’t a passing grade either. But sure, if a kid wants to do a re-write of an essay with a one grade penalty? Have at it.

[Jemian]

The teacher does have the right to post the essay provided indentifying markers are removed.

[rlmorel]

One of my best friends was going to college around the same time I was, and he was a Psychology/Philosophy major. He had to type a thesis for a course called “Existential Humanistic Psychology” or something like that in order to graduate, but...he didn’t know how to type. I did, and had access to an electric typewriter, so I told him I could type it for him.

He gave me his handwritten copy of the lengthy document, and his writing was so illegible I simply couldn’t read it. He said “No problem, I’ll dictate it to you!” (He bragged with some perverse pride that his handwriting resembled marks made by a chicken who had been grabbed by the neck, feet dipped in ink, and walked across paper! I suspect it made him proud simply because it made people laugh every time he said it...)

So, he begins dictating, and I begin typing, and the content of this paper seemed so bizarre to me, I had to keep interrupting him to ask what the hell this or that means, followed by a comment about the strange courses he had to take to graduate his major. We got it typed out in time.

When I asked him later how he did on the paper, he said that he did okay, but a guy in his class “Joe” didn’t do so well.

“Joe” was one of these guys who did a bit too many illegal substances, and came across as a total burnout. He wore an overcoat in nearly all weather, buttoned all the way up to his neck. Very strange guy. I met him once or twice, and he didn’t seem stupid, just...damaged somehow.

Anyway, my friend’s thesis was probably twenty or thirty pages, and this guy “Joe” handed in a thesis that was one page long.

On that one page, my friend told me that he had written a single sentence: “Because the length of this thesis is so short, it demonstrates that I understand the subject completely.”

My friend’s face lit up as he described this, and he said he thought “Joe’s” paper was brilliant, and that it DID demonstrate he knew exactly what the subject of the course was about!

“Joe” got an “F”!

If there had been an Internet back then, I could have posted the Tommy Lee Jones “This is my surprised face.” graphic!

[Sacajaweau]

Nope...The kid has a copyright...it’s automatic. Something I deal with all the time. The teacher has no such right.