Sitting writing my essay on migration when an older gentleman next to me offers his seat nearer the plug socket in return for me telling him what I’m writing. After a brief discussion about it, he informs he was previously a university professor. We discuss the frustration of my course being the regurgitation on my text book and he tells me the joy of education is seeing the different interpretations of each student and tells me the following story.
An invigilator at Harvard was once sitting in on a Philosophy exam titled ‘What is courage?’ and noticed a student who appeared not to be writing. The invigilator watched this student throughout the exam, examining his nails, drumming the table, relaxing in his chair. In the last five minutes of the exam, the student turned to the last page of the exam book and writes something. On collecting the exam books, the invigilator couldn’t help his curiosity and turned to the last page of this student’s book, and read the words ‘this is courage’. The story goes that this student got an A.
This professor told me that he would have granted this student an A, and whether or not the story was true, he believes that this is what education is all about. He wished me luck in my essay and went on his way.
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