I don't understand



he he j/k

Quote Originally Posted by DonMike View Post
When I was in college I had this amazing professor who taught one of my Communications classes. He was one of the few professors who decided to challenge the system and teach in his own way. He believed, and myself and many other students agreed with him, that a student will learn more through reading and discussion rather than lecturing, memorization and testing. So this professor decided to make the entire class all about reading and discussion. But because the school board required a tangible means of giving a grade, he gave us four essays to write. The "technical" grade would come from these four essays but the real grade would come from your ability to disucss the reading material in our discussion groups.

(bear with me, this is going somewhere)

This was my dream class. I was so hoping that this would be the cornerstone of revolutionizing the way college courses ran. But then something happened. A friend of mine figured that since the "techical" grade would depend on the four essays, he didn't have to go to class. He skipped all but a few of the classes but made sure to do a really good job of the essays. Even though his essays were good, he got a D in the overall class.

This student could not figure out how he got the D and went so far as to complain to the school board, using his four essays as proof that he should have gotten a better grade. The sad ending is that he didn't get any better than a D but that professor was forced to give up this special way of teaching and follow a memorization and testing format.

The whole point of this story is that my friend just didn't "get it". His grade, while it appeared to be based on the essays, and while if asked the teacher would have to say it was based on the essays, was not based on the essays at all, but in his overall performance in class. But he just couldn't understand why it was more than just the essays. Sometimes rules exist outside the constraints of written words but the only way to get them down on paper is to attach the ideas to a specific written rule. If it doesn't make sense, it's because you are not reading between the lines. There is always, always stuff between the lines. And if you refuse to look there then you are always going to find yourself in trouble.