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Pam Owen says:
Two years ago, when I went back to college, I got a 115, a perfect
score, on my Physical
Geography exam (it had 15 bonus questions) and an "A" for the course.
The other day,
my Australian neighbor asked me how what that day's ambient temperature
was, in
Centigrade. I had to go look it up. In fact, I remember almost nothing
from that test or
the course.
Pam, a very wise teacher I had once made it a habit of giving us "open
library" tests. In his opinion the reason to study almost anything was to
learn what was out there to be learned and to know where to look when we
need a fact or detail. He even occasionally threw in a question that the
library wouldn't have an answer to -- the only way to get credit for that
question was to ask the teacher. (He didn't tell us he was teaching us to
consut SME's when appropriate, I figured it out later -- but then, that was
junior high) I still operate on that assumption about the value of
education.