Creativity

I try not to write much about my students. I just don't think that's very good practice, at least as long as they are your students.

Honestly though, I don't think it can be avoided sometimes.

I've been grading a batch of student arguments, and they are supposed to be presenting the opposing viewpoint and then rebutting it in one section of the essay.

To paraphrase one student's position on capital punishment:

Some people make the claim that too many people end up getting executed for crimes we eventually learn they didn't commit. It's true that innocent people occassionally are executed; it's natural that we'll make mistakes sometimes. This objection to the death penalty, however, still is not valid. For every innocent person who's accidentally executed, there's probably a guilty person who isn't caught and is going free, so eventually the numbers work out close to equal. So it really all works out in the end.

I'm expecting this student to have a nice career as either a lawyer or a politician.