r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 12h ago

TIL In 2019 a Japanese University student studying ninja history turned in an essay written in invisible ink. The words only became visible when the paper was heated over a gas stove. Her professor without even revealing the whole essay gave her an A.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49996166
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u/Ichier 12h ago

Yeah, my professors didn't do hard shit to grade work that clearly had a lot of work put in either. One of my classmates in college had to write a paragraph of what it would be like to be a french peasant so they wrote it in french and got a 100%, the professor isn't checking that stuff.

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u/EmperorHans 11h ago

I took a Latin class in high school where we had a big art project at the end of the semester. I have no visual art capacity, so he let me write a play. Historic Roman stock characters, Roman style five acts, a speech in dactylic hexameter, the whole works. It was super long and I was very proud of it. 

He flipped through the pages to make sure they weren't all blank and gave me a 100. 

Mixed feelings. 

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u/SUPERSAMMICH6996 11h ago

On one hand, I understand the amount of time it would take to carefully read through something like that, 120 times or so (assuming 30 students per class and four classes per semester). On the other hand... my mom is a teacher, and over-the-top work like that is one of the few joys she has left in regards to teaching.

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u/hwf0712 9h ago

Yeah like that's really gotta suck as the student and also be hard for the teacher, but also like... it kinda feels like it could've been avoided with some foresight. Maybe instead just have had the student write one act fully, and bullet point out the rest so the gist of the other 4 acts can be gotten in 10 minutes.

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u/ffddb1d9a7 8h ago

The teacher is already making up an unplanned project for a single student. They're not going to have a rubric for it, guaranteed.

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u/Srifez 4h ago

The students are supposed to be learning for themselves not for the teachers appreciation :D