But, it's very true... while in graduate school in Chicago I took several courses in the theories of learning... learning and forgetting go hand in hand, you can't separate them, something like time and space as we understand it... the final exam for one of these courses had only two questions, the answers were to be written in as much detail as possible, citing references and examples... the class sat there with an unlimited supply of those blue books into which we could write our answers, the professor stood in front of the class and said "This exam has only two questions, the first is tell me everything you know about forgetting, and the second is explain the mathematical theory of learning. You have 2 1/2 hours, good luck."
I spent the entire 2 1/2 hours answering the first question in incredible detail, citing previous studies and critiquing them... by the time I was done, I had only about 5 minutes left to answer the second question, so I decided just to leave it blank and make a note on the blue book that I ran out of time answering the first question. I just knew I failed the exam. As I slowly walked out of the classroom with my head down, I could almost hear the bagpipes play the funeral dirge behind me.
The next day on the board outside the professor's office were the appointment times for each of us students to sit with the professor privately to discuss our exam and to get our final grade. I knew I had to do a lot of explaining for not even answering the second question.
At my appointment time, I entered his office and sat down. He began immediately. He told me that in all the years he has been teaching at the university, he has never seen such a brilliant and detailed answer to the question of forgetting. I was surprised and certainly happy to hear that, but then he said that he has also never seen anyone who could provide such an answer to one question and yet not even attempt the second question.
I told him in a really small and frightened voice, "I ran out of time." I was only hoping he would accept my response, but it seemed hopeless, I was preparing myself for a failing grade.
He said the first answer was so incredibly detailed that it made no difference that I didn't even attempt the second question. He said he's giving me an A for the exam and an A for the course.
I had to catch my breath. I can't even begin to tell you how shocked and relieved I was. I knew that if he had asked for the mathematical theories of learning for the first question, that it would have changed the entire landscape of my essays for that exam, I definitely knew more about the theories of forgetting than I did about the mathematical theories of learning. Maybe I still would have received an A, but there's no way of knowing.
Well, this was a long story, but it's true, one of those incredible moments as a student in graduate school, I suppose we all have those memorable moments... I'm pretty sure this was one I will never forget, if I could use that word here...<g>
GZ |
