Notes from the classroom: Papers and benevolent dictatorships

I usually have two exams and two papers for my courses.  This semester, for reasons passing understanding, I decided on three papers and two exams.  I think somewhere in a brain addled with Olympic enthusiasm, I wanted to shorten the exams (eliminating the essays) and make up that material as part of a “paper.”  Not sure why I wanted to do that.  The students weren’t thrilled about an extra paper and it takes me about five hours longer to grade 25 papers than to grade 25 essays on an exam.

So, I greeted the students ths Monday with the following message. Looking back now, I’m struck by how punchy I can be right after my morning tea:

Fellow historians of the Qing Empire:

I was walking around Beijing this weekend, pondering what it meant to have a “Restoration,” and it occurred to me that one feature of past restorations was a demonstration of imperial benevolence, whether in the form of tax holidays or the pardoning of prisoners.  Since I am  unlikely to ever have my own small- to mid-size empire, restored or otherwise, my opportunities to show benevolence sadly tend to be few and far between.  This is one of them.

It is hereby decreed, after consultation with the junjichu, that, unless there is considerable outcry from the people, the second paper has been canceled.  Fear not struggling literati, we still have one more paper to go in which you can dazzle me with your brilliance, but that will be due toward the end of the semester.

Should you have any questions on this, or other matters, I am receiving the people in my office this afternoon and tomorrow morning.*

Jeremiah

*Ketou‘s appreciated, but hardly necessary.

So far I haven’t had any complaints.

From the archives

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