I probably shouldn’t be laughing about this book but it really is quite funny. College in a Nutskull was put together by Anders Henriksson who is a Professor of History at Shepherd University. He had previously released a book entitled Ignorance is Blitz which was well received, prompting him to collect information from professors from around the country for this new update on the status of education around the country.
Ok, ok, this book is really very sad. Inside of College in a Nutskull you’ll find answers that actual college students have given in college essays and on exams. You have to wonder as you reading through whether or not the students actually believed the things that they wrote down, or if they were just being lazy and were intentionally making up a bunch of mumbo jumbo to fill space on a paper.
This book is divided into seventeen sections, each focusing on a particular college course. From Religious Studies, to English Literature, to Geography you will chuckle thanks to the ignorance of others. I have to admit that a part of me is repulsed by this book because I think it represents how little college students know and think. (I seethe when I think about how much money their parents are shelling out to give their kids a proper education only to have dribbling nonsense on term papers!) But then the other part of me couldn’t quit laughing at the things that were being written down. Here are two of my favorite examples:
From Religious Studies:
“The Nicene Creed required everyone to be nice to each other.”
From English Literature:
“An epic is like a docudrama, but more boring.”
Maybe we shouldn’t go to college until we’re in our forties and see the need.
At any rate, I debated over whether or not to review this one because of my angst over the ignorance. However, I’ve obviously decided to go and and review it because I DID laugh (quite hard) as I was reading it. I really couldn’t help myself. Furthermore, I made my husband chuckle by reading interesting tidbits to him. I’m not sure I’d hand this book over to my teacher friend when she’s trying to prepare her kids for testing. But as a non-teacher, I found it eye-rolling and hilarious most of the time.
For what it’s worth . . .
Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library.
Lauren says
Okay, speaking as a college student, that was pretty dumb and funny. I will admit that I’ve participated in “BS-ing” my way through an essay question, but I never use the vernacular/slang of today’s language. I always stick to the academic style prose. However, I haven’t had to do that very often. Only a small handful of times that I can remember.
Katy says
As a college instructor I can attest to reading some crazy things on exams. If you don’t laugh about it, you’ll cry.
bekahcubed says
Ditto Katy’s comment. Humor is a great gift for the college-level grader. If you don’t laugh at it, you can’t last long. What bothers me most is that these ridiculous answers don’t just show up on tests–they appear on assignments that the students were given plenty of time to complete, using any resources they’d like.
I’ve come to not mind vernacular and slang quite so much–but I’ll never get used to “text-talk” or the improper use of homonyms. I teach foods classes, so I get responses like “Wait is the best way to measure flower because their might be air holes in it.” Most of my students have figured out that they at least need to TRY to write in a professional manner, but I’ve seen horror e-mails sent to other teachers: “Y did i get 10/20 on asnmnt 2???? i spent 2hrs on that!!!!”
Troy Simpson says
Perhaps it is because of the differences between American and English humour, but I didn’t find College in a Nutskull to be very funny. To me, it is more a book of silly mistakes than funny bloopers. I’ve tried fleshing-out my thoughts in more detail here: http://www.funny-english-errors.com/resources/articles/college-in-a-nutskull.html. I’d be interested to know what people think.