if you want a thing done right, you've gotta strongarm someone else into doing it for you

I was greeted at work today by a completely unexpected, completely inappropriate request.

From what I understand (and it's still kind of fuzzy, due to the language barrier), Nummon wanted me to write a paper for the niece of the head of Prathom. This girl is an English major.

Nummon handed me a packet of papers the girl had put together. There was an outline on the first page.

The paper was on intermarriage between Buddhists and Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, and Catholics and Protestants. Her plan was to include "case studies" for each religious combo.

I leafed through her notes and found that by "case studies," she meant postings from random people on online discussion boards - complete with copied and pasted excerpts of poorly written rants from people struggling with their own mixed-faith marriages.

WTF?

She also had notes on religious beliefs. Among the things Catholicism and Protestantism share are the ideas "That wicked people go to hell" and "That good people go to heaven."

She didn't have one scholarly source. Not a book or a single journal article. I couldn't believe it.

I asked Nummon what kind of work this girl was actually doing herself, since the paper had been delegated to Nummon and, subsequently, to me. She made an excuse about how the girl is still young and sometimes young students need help. It was due tomorrow.

I have this crazy notion that language learners need to do their own damn homework if they want to achieve any level of proficiency.

I attempted to correct some doctrinal errors (e.g. Catholics do not worship Mary) and gave the girl some feedback, telling her to go to the library (I even suggested some books to look up!) and to talk to sociology professors for more resources on interfaith marriages. I left everything else alone and decided to let Nummon deal with the mess her boss had forced upon her.

I also told her I'd be happy to edit a written paper any time.

The educational system here is ridiculous if this is not an isolated case. Especially at the university level! I'm disgusted. Truly.