Before the state writing test we had a lesson on thesis statements, for which I wrote maybe six or ten essay prompts on the board. Throughout the class we wrote thesis statements for essays corresponding to all of them. In order to use prompts most like those that might appear on the test, I took them from a list published by the Mississippi Department of Education. One of the prompts on that list asked for an informative essay explaining the reasons “why your school is a good school.”
I hesitated before putting that prompt on the board. I didn’t want to invite cynicism or incite bitterness, or to draw attention to anything unhelpful to our discussion of thesis statements. But I thought, Who’s being cynical? Isn’t it ugly of me even to hesisitate? To have such a thought occur to me? I put it up with the rest of them.
And of my six classes, the number in which that prompt became a joke, a distraction, an opportunity to make loud pronouncements about lying in essays: all six.