Real Winners

Okay, I am usually not the kind of person to make fun of people.  I don't hate stupid people or any self-righteous thing like that.  But seriously, guys, I spent six straight hours helping my mom grade assignments today, and I laughed so hard at some of the things these kids wrote I had to get out my inhaler.  I'll just give you the top 3 that stick out in my mind.  These were all on assignments on Poe's "Cask of Amontillado."

#3: "He said his strengths were strong and his weaknesses were weak."  Strengths are strong and weaknesses are weak.  Yeah, not only was that redundant, it also didn't tell anything about Montressor's characterization of Fortunato.

#2: "Montressor hated Fortunato because he was very fortunate."  Apparently, this kid had no idea what to write, so he just came up with the one word he could think of because it sounded like the character's name.  And considering Fortunato dies in the story, I'm not really sure how he's considered fortunate.

And the Big Kahuna #1:  "Rising action: goes to a circus. Climax: meets a dude. Falling action: dude turns out to be kinda strange."  Yes, that is seriously what he wrote.  One, it isn't even a circus in the story, it's a carnival. Two, he couldn't even remember character names so he just called them dude? Three, the "dude" being "strange" is just about the understatement of the millenium, which anyone who has read this story knows.  And the kicker?  He wrote this down for an answer to a two-part question that had absolutely nothing to do with asking about the plot of the story.

As I told my mom today "I don't know how you could be depressed at this job - there's just so much to laugh at!"

Come on, y'all, you have to admit this is funny.  And the geniuses who wrote these three items aren't kids who are just honestly not smart and tried...these are kids who could do well and just don't care.

I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that tomorrow all I'm doing is entering grades. :)