No, not one of my undergrads; me. I am cleaning the filing system, especially old school and personal documents, and going through an emotional rollercoaster (consisting mostly of the “down” parts as everything I find seems to scream terrible choices and squandered potential). Among my old college materials, I found some blue books from tests I took during my senior year at BYU, 1993 (eek!). Some of them are hugely reassuring. Not all the answers were great, and I didn’t get A’s on all the tests, but it’s nice to be reminded that (1) I’m not an idiot, and (2) it’s OK to expect my own students to learn how to think. I was almost 20 years dumber back then, and my answers reflect that, but I’m proud of my historical self anyway, given his limitations.
The essay transcribed below came from an exam in a capstone class that we non-honors students took (oh, how I wish I’d just sucked it up and done honors…) instead of writing a thesis. The prof (Harold Miller) was not exactly warm and fuzzy, but he was brilliant, and committed to teaching effectively. He had a strong sense that students must be taught critical thinking and encouraged to question assumptions. He might have fit in at Berkeley or Harvard, which explains the rumor that he had resigned from BYU in protest before I met him. My essay answer is after the cut. Laugh all you want, but it’s about as good as my essay tests ever got. Continue reading →