Let me tell you about the time I failed a class for doing extra work. It was a graduate level ethics class, the only F I have on my transcript (and, of course, EVERYONE who sees my transcipts wants to know why I failed ethics in grad school):
The class was Christian Ethics (I was in a theological program) and I had already begun doing my own reading in postmodern theology, which overlapped a lot with Christian ethics. So, when I wrote papers, I drew upon the work I had been reading (which was extra from what was on the syllabus), articulating different approaches to ethical issues based on that work–like I assumed one did in a graduate level course. Every paper I got back was graded terribly. Guys in my class who barely read stuff were acing the class. I couldn’t understand. So when I got my failing grade, I considered a few options, deciding on taking a directed study with the professor of the class in the hopes that I could better understand what went wrong.
It was halfway through that directed study that I realized the dude just wanted me to regurgitate the syllabus back at him. He wanted me to basically parrot back his own stuff. Once I figured that out, I did much better. But my wife thinks it’s hilarious that I got an F in grad school for doing too much work.
I’m guilty of perhaps learning a bit too late that in school you’re supposed to learn how to learn as opposed to learning every specific thing that they teach you.
What you went through is a prime example of the “don’t-get-too-involved” that seems like a workable approach to many things in life, and that teacher was maybe well aware of the irony of it all.
Let me tell you about the time I failed a class for doing extra work. It was a graduate level ethics class, the only F I have on my transcript (and, of course, EVERYONE who sees my transcipts wants to know why I failed ethics in grad school):
The class was Christian Ethics (I was in a theological program) and I had already begun doing my own reading in postmodern theology, which overlapped a lot with Christian ethics. So, when I wrote papers, I drew upon the work I had been reading (which was extra from what was on the syllabus), articulating different approaches to ethical issues based on that work–like I assumed one did in a graduate level course. Every paper I got back was graded terribly. Guys in my class who barely read stuff were acing the class. I couldn’t understand. So when I got my failing grade, I considered a few options, deciding on taking a directed study with the professor of the class in the hopes that I could better understand what went wrong.
It was halfway through that directed study that I realized the dude just wanted me to regurgitate the syllabus back at him. He wanted me to basically parrot back his own stuff. Once I figured that out, I did much better. But my wife thinks it’s hilarious that I got an F in grad school for doing too much work.
I had a philosophy exam where one of the questions was a riddle.
I’m guilty of perhaps learning a bit too late that in school you’re supposed to learn how to learn as opposed to learning every specific thing that they teach you.
What you went through is a prime example of the “don’t-get-too-involved” that seems like a workable approach to many things in life, and that teacher was maybe well aware of the irony of it all.