A quickie, while we wait

[drwex]

I have pictures and stories and words in process and they'll all eventually show up here, but right now a brief interlude:

Desiringsubject made a comment about the situation in which a student (oneself) does only the minimum required to pass a course,

The last time I can remember doing that myself was sophomore year, first semester. The class was French II or some equally imaginative name. In order to get the degree I thought I wanted I needed three semesters of a foreign language (why three and not four? Don't ask. University rules make NO sense.)

I had just barely squeaked by the first two semesters. I think I placed out of one based on testing well in remembering my high school French and somehow got through the other. So all I needed was this one more semester.

Now it's worth noting that I suck at speaking foreign languages. I think it's largely the sheer memorization involved; I've never been good at that sort of thing. Also, verbs. English's notion of how to mangle a verb is a stunted dwarf by comparison with the arcane convolutions most languages put their verbs through. The tense conjugations of most French verbs would do a circus contortionist proud. But I digress...

I had explained to the (young, enthusiastic) French teacher that I had no facility for languages. She, however, was convinced that she could cure me of this problem and so I took her class. She made it easy - you only needed a 60 to pass, rather than the usual 70 (of 100). Having determined this, I averaged 62 and changed my grading regimen to pass/fail. Thus doing almost precisely the minimum possible to pass the class, get the credit the University said I had to have, and spending my time on what I then considered to be Better Things.

In hindsight, I'm not sure that was a correct judgment, but what I remember most was the look on that poor teacher's face when I pointed out that I had, definitionally, passed the class despite doing very little work and effectively learning nothing. Now-me, having spent time as a teacher, has much more sympathy for her than then-me did. Perhaps she was young enough and new enough at the teaching game that she'd never had a student game the system in such a horrid way. But I did, and if I had it to do over again I'm not sure I would act differently. I really do suck at (non-English) languages, you see.

Perhaps to make up for it, or perhaps in karmic payback, I get grief from my cow orkers for using words like "quiesce" on my bug reports.

Comments

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right to me. By the standards of your story I gamed my way through college, but then, and somewhat now, I figure that's the point... learning is what I do on *my* time, school is just the hoops that society made me jump through to get whatever stamp of approval is necessary to then get through the hoops of other people who aren't inclined to put in the time to actually get to know me. Not surprisingly, I'm consistently baffled as to why anyone willingly goes into academia instead of out into the real world.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

mostly, one goes into academia if one is enthralled by ideas rather than results, and has a steady stream of new ideas to foist on unsuspecting grad students. then again, i'm cynical. i try not to be, but there it is.