Many years ago, when my daughter (now 25) was starting middle school, I told her about a test I had been given back in junior high (yeah, I'm that old). The instructions began with "Read all the directions first." They rambled on for over half a page, but ended with "Do not answer any questions, just write your name on the test and hand it in."
Well, damned if she didn't get that test a few days later, and pissed off most of the rest of the class when she jumped up and handed in the test within a minute or so. We had a good laugh at her description of some of her friends' reactions.
Chris, I work in a regulated industry that requires all employees to have read applicable processes before performing their job. As I programmer responsible for writing the process involved with my programs, I learned early on to place a variable in programs that must be changed from it's default download state in order for the program to not instantly alarm out whith a message saying "read your process". When I write the process I save mentioning that variable until somewhere near the end of the document where I can bury mentioning it in the last few paragraphs and changing it to avoid revealing that you have not read the process. I hate getting waked up at 2 a.m. by a 3rd shift supervisor complaining, but I take pride in instantly cussing him/her out for not following the instructions they give their employees, "read your process in it's entirety before proceding with operation"
At tech college I was always last handing in my tests. Always. I'd lost my union factory job during a "economic contraction" in 1987 and decided to go back to school. With a house/wife/kids/dog/truck and car I didn't dare do anything but my best. Finished first in my class on a Friday 16 months later and went to my new job the following Monday.
Here's what gets me though, is a goofy kid named Dewey, eight or ten years younger than me. He was done first always with a two hour test in fourty-five minutes and was happy with a C grade. It took me the whole 2 hours to come in at 98% to 100%.
My guess is that he was a whole lot smarter than me but wasn't focused. At fourty-five minutes I was only half way done and would have failed.
I thank my parents for teaching me you aren't done until the chore is well done.
7 comments:
And you think spiders are evil.
Terry
Fla.
Many years ago, when my daughter (now 25) was starting middle school, I told her about a test I had been given back in junior high (yeah, I'm that old). The instructions began with "Read all the directions first." They rambled on for over half a page, but ended with "Do not answer any questions, just write your name on the test and hand it in."
Well, damned if she didn't get that test a few days later, and pissed off most of the rest of the class when she jumped up and handed in the test within a minute or so. We had a good laugh at her description of some of her friends' reactions.
Especially cool to do if you're a college prof covering a fractal geometry class!
Chris, I work in a regulated industry that requires all employees to have read applicable processes before performing their job. As I programmer responsible for writing the process involved with my programs, I learned early on to place a variable in programs that must be changed from it's default download state in order for the program to not instantly alarm out whith a message saying "read your process".
When I write the process I save mentioning that variable until somewhere near the end of the document where I can bury mentioning it in the last few paragraphs and changing it to avoid revealing that you have not read the process.
I hate getting waked up at 2 a.m. by a 3rd shift supervisor complaining, but I take pride in instantly cussing him/her out for not following the instructions they give their employees, "read your process in it's entirety before proceding with operation"
"Insecurity is being the first to turn in an exam paper."
"Insecurity is being the LAST to turn in an exam paper."
At tech college I was always last handing in my tests. Always. I'd lost my union factory job during a "economic contraction" in 1987 and decided to go back to school. With a house/wife/kids/dog/truck and car I didn't dare do anything but my best. Finished first in my class on a Friday 16 months later and went to my new job the following Monday.
Here's what gets me though, is a goofy kid named Dewey, eight or ten years younger than me. He was done first always with a two hour test in fourty-five minutes and was happy with a C grade. It took me the whole 2 hours to come in at 98% to 100%.
My guess is that he was a whole lot smarter than me but wasn't focused. At fourty-five minutes I was only half way done and would have failed.
I thank my parents for teaching me you aren't done until the chore is well done.
I had students like that, usually rich kids or Pell grant kids. Either way they had no skin in the game. Nothing on the line. Free ride.
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