TEACHERS LOVE SARCASM AND SATIRE

While scrolling through Twitter, I noticed that someone had a strong reaction to an article titled “To My Student, on the Death of Her Grandmother(s).” This person shared the article with the comment that the professor should leave academia if they hate students that much. After seeing this, my interest was certainly piqued. So, I read the article and what I read, to me, wasn’t offensive at all or suggested that the author hated her students. I got the impression that she was just tired of excuses.

In the article, the author speaks to an unnamed student whose grandmothers died six weeks apart. One during midterms and the other (conveniently) during finals. The student was requesting permission to turn the final project in late. The author’s response to this request was a list of ridiculous steps to prove that indeed her grandmother(s) passed away and proof of mourning since the student couldn’t complete the project by the due date. I thought that it was hilarious. However, the Twitter user who shared the article and the many commenters on the actual site where the article is published didn’t think so. They called her heartless, inconsiderate and callous. Stating that anyone who has lost a grandmother wouldn’t be so cold. But, that’s not what I got from it.

Now I am by no means heartless, but I did teach Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to my seniors this year, and this is clearly the impact that this professor was going for. Of course, she did not actually tell her student this. Much like I didn’t really tell my students that I didn’t feel like teaching as I wrote in a previous post. What she did was use satire to ridicule the litany of excuses that college students give when they do not meet deadlines. Very likely as a result of high schools enabling and babying them through 12th grade. As a teacher of seniors, I am guilty of this because the principal and guidance counselors and supervisors want to keep the graduation rate up and we have to consider the students’ challenging home lives. The safety nets, extensions, opportunities to do make up work, and accommodations that we’ve provided for our students in high school is what has created this female student who was written about. I understand and appreciate the humor of it all.

In comparison, when Swift suggested eating babies to improve the economy of Ireland, he was not being serious. He was ridiculing how England was taking advantage of the poor. The problem was real, but the solution was exaggerated. When the author of the article “To My Student, on the Death of Her Grandmother(s)” listed the steps for her student to be permitted to submit her final project late, she too was not being serious. She was shedding light to the fact that these young people always have excuses for not meeting the expectations and demands of higher education. In order to accommodate them, she provides a satirical solution. 

You can read the article here to form your own opinion. Be sure to come back and share your thoughts. 

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