Class. I just talk about class now, don’t I? Well, it’s the thing that’s happening in my life, unless you would be entertained by the intricacies of packing kitchen boxes. I have made progress. I really have. Only 1000 more boxes to pack.
So in class, the instructor keeps saying things like ‘oh, this won’t be for a grade; just see how far you can get.’ Which has seemed a bit unfair. I mean, I know I’m going to do it; he knows I’m going to do it, but the trade off is that he has to look at it and say ‘good job’ and give me a sticker.
As I mentioned, this adult education approach where we’re actually supposed to believe that learning the material is more important than the grade we get has some serious drawbacks.
However, there has been an interesting personal development. Remember oh so many weeks ago when I had to make a web page, and wanted to do one thing outside of scope, and couldn’t quite talk myself into it? Well, this spirit of rebellion has been nurtured by the “these aren’t really assignments” tasks.
Cause if they aren’t assignments, and they’re not graded, then I don’t have to follow their instructions. This is the third not-assignment where I’ve done this, and the first one where I realized why I suddenly felt free to do so. It is interesting. Because I’m certainly doing more with the assignment; often doing slightly more difficult things, and that’s unquestionably a good thing from the point of view of learning. Repetition, challenge, so forth.
And yet, I can only do so when the assignments are turned into not-assignments, and I get mad about it, and do all this extra stuff because I’ll show them, dang it, tell me this isn’t really the assignment and just look at what I think of your so-called instructions. So there!
But likewise I’m not likely (as in, I don’t do this) that I’d just seek out some novel challenge, say hmm let’s see if I can do that, and then do it … except in the structure of a class where I have to do these things; they’re assigned.
Psychology. It’s a strange odd world inside of one’s head.