Rubric means red ochre--red earth--as in Bryce Canyon and Sedona. Red headers were used in medieval manuscripts as section or chapter markers, and you can bet that the Whore of Babylon got herself some fancy rubrics over the years. Through most of its history, the word has been attached to religious texts and liturgy; rubrics were used as direction indicators for conducting divine services. In a system that separates church and state, it's a wonder that the word has achieved so universal a secular makeover. Today the classic definition of "rubric" is: "At its most basic, a rubric is a scoring tool that lays out the specific expectations for an assignment" (Stevens and Levi 3). Herein English professor, Joan Digby highlights the hypocrisy of measuring students against preconceived expectations when students attend college, in part, to learn how to think and engage deeply in "critical thinking." She discusses the impact the use of rubrics and other changes such as the use of templates, that like rubrics imply everything students do must be measured to fit a certain mold, have had on her English department and argues that both reveal the degree to which academia has become an industrial operation.