…when professors give you an essay prompt that goes as follows:

“tell me everything you’ve learned this semester about the the jews in germany.”

obviously this is for my holocaust class. what kind of lame question is that? i’ve learned a lot about the jews in germany so far this semester…perhaps you could narrow that question down for me a bit! there’s a lot i could say. i could probably write my doctoral dissertation on “the jews in germany.” that’s a broad topic. oh, and how many pages would you like? “oh, i don’t care. however many pages it takes to answer the question.” thanks. multiply that times 4 and that’s my holocaust mid-term due tomorrow.

what kind of prompt would i rather, you might ask? here’s how this lame prompt can be transformed into a freakin awesome essay prompt:

“the nuremberg laws of 1935, enacted by adolf hitler, attempted to define the term “jew.” as such, a “jew” was defined racially as anyone with at least one jewish grandparent. this greatly increased racial discrimination against the jewish population in germany. the breaking point came in the two day event known as kristallnacht. describe the german jewish population before the nuremberg laws were enacted, after they were enacted, and finally after kristallnacht. focus on the progression of their reaction to hitler’s radical ideology and german social norms.”

can i graduate now?

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