for your grading pleasure

If you are in the throws of midterm grading, you may want to read this little gem: "Life Reeked with Joy" (if you haven't already). It's a history of the western world from the Middle Ages through the modern period, told through snippets from student essays. Good for a laugh.

My favorite paragraph:

The Reformnation happened when German nobles resented the idea that tithes were going to Papal France or the Pope thus enriching Catholic coiffures. Traditions had become oppressive so they too were crushed in the wake of man's quest for resurrection above the not-just-social beast he had become. An angry Martin Luther nailed 95 theocrats to a church door. Theologically, Luthar was into reorientation mutation. Calvinism was the most convenient religion since the days of the ancients. Anabaptist services tended to be migratory. The Popes, of course, were usually Catholic. Monks went right on seeing themselves as worms. The last Jesuit priest died in the 19th century.

Something about that line "The Popes, of course, were usually Catholic" just sends me into hysterics every time.