Comparing Sins of Professors and Students

­­­            These two essays are very similar in style and tone. Since they are both written by Thomas H. Benton, it makes sense that they are organized in the same way. The Seven Deadly Sins of Students is an essay about the particular “sins” that students commit that set them back acedemically. The Seven Deadly Sins of Professors is sort of a response article by the same author. Benton is a teacher, and in the essay about professors, he addresses the fact that professors might commit some of the same sins that students do. In each of these essays, he first addresses the fact that people are not perfect. This is good to include before talking about people’s sins, because it could help avoid people getting offended or getting the wrong idea about the point of his essay. Both students and professors have flaws and make mistakes, so there is not one strong opinion showed for one or the other. Also, a second essay shows that although his essay on students might have seemed a bit biased, he does in fact see both sides.

            With his sloth comparison, is it fairly the same. Many professors can be sloths, just like students. Students can choose not to do the work, but professors can choose not to teach the material if it requires too much effort. A big difference I saw was with the “greed” sin. Benton claims that students want to get degrees that will provide them with the most money, but professors can have certain jobs because of a “lack of options.” If he is making the claim that students only want high paying jobs, then why do professors get degrees where teaching is their only option? If the initial argument about greed is true, then professors would have tried to get different degrees when they were students in the past. Generally, everything else between the two essays are very similar. Both students and professors have lazy tendencies, can be envious, and get angry at others every once in a while. Overall, these essays are very similar, and Benton does a good job of not being biased toward the professors.