OP-ED: You Can't Be Mad That I Assigned an Extra Long Problem Set Over Break— I Said "Have a Nice Thanksgiving!" in My Email

Hey folks,

I heard some of you were a little peeved when you saw that I assigned you a problem set over Thanksgiving break. Look, I totally get it: Thanksgiving is meant for spending quality time with your family first and solving partial differential equations second.

But even if you're a teensy bit miffed, you shouldn't blame me.

Sure, you may be wondering, is assigning homework over break even allowed? Maybe not. Who really knows? But break started on Wednesday, and I assigned it on Tuesday. So you could have done it all on Tuesday night if you wanted to, okay?

One more thing: you can’t be that upset about my problem set because I said “Have a nice Thanksgiving!” at the end of my email. I am a nice guy. I truly wish that you had a nice break, struggling to perfect your answers because you definitely scored below the mean on the second midterm and need to do well in this class. I really hope that you enjoyed your free time this past weekend, probably ignoring all your loved ones while you worked diligently on this particularly long problem set that will count for 0.5% of your final grade.

It is my greatest wish that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Break, and I desperately hope that you have a wonderful rest of the semester. As a reminder: Midterm 3 will take place on December 7th, and your final exam will take place on December 14th at 9am.

Warm regards,

Your Professor