Monday, November 24, 2014

paradox

Just tell me what you want.

We want you to have some ideas you didn't get from a book, or from us. We want to push you beyond what you already know how to do. We want you to try things that are just beyond your abilities. We want you to experiment. We want you to make mistakes. We want to see growth, creativity, interesting failure. We want your reach to exceed your grasp; we want you to strive to do, and agonize to do, and fail in doing, not to tone it all down to yonder sober pleasant Fiesole. We want the jagged, awkward edges of a first effort, the unpredictable eruptions of discovery.

But then we have to put a grade on it. God damn.

3 comments:

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

I'm grading right now, and I'm grumpy about it. I've told the students not to repeat the lectures, so what they are doing instead is giving me a bunch of shallow crap with the same exact quotes that I used in the lecture to substantiate. Meh. So sick of this. Why can't they try to be creative and engaged?

Belle said...

All too true. But boy, do I love your first paragraph!

Sisyphus said...

But then we have to put a grade on it. God damn.

Yesssssssss. Argh yes. Or points!