I would like to thank John Denker for writing a nice response that
expresses many of my feelings.
I also think Bernard Cleyet is correct about not wanting to reward
smart-alec students. I see several of these each year. Although they
are bright, they badly need social skills, and rewarding smart-alec
behavior does not advance them in this area. I certainly don't want to
stifle creativity, but a student in smart-alec mode is not being
creative. At best he is boasting, "Look at me and see how clever I am."
Often it is worse because he is a putting other people down, including
the professor. We don't need this type of behavior in our society.
George Spagna's comment about finding the box before going outside is
also good. I am reminded of playing in a band under a conductor who
could not count or direct anything with complicated rhythm. We were
learning a new piece and the director simply could not count/direct a
particular section of the piece. I tried to be tactful and told the
conductor that the band was not playing the correct rhythm in this
section. I'm sure he knew he wasn't directing it correctly, but he
didn't know how and/or wasn't able to get it right. He was outside the
box and he couldn't find the box. He said, "Well, I don't like what the
composer wrote here, so we're going to take artistic license and play it
our own way."
I fully appreciate the idea of artistic license, but I think it would be
a good idea to understand and play the piece the way the composer wrote
it before we are entitled to use artistic license. Unfortunately we
never got anywhere near the box on that particular piece. You cannot
claim you are thinking outside the box if you don't know where the box
is. The more appropriate description of where you are is... lost.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu