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My 6th grade science teacher always stressed the importance of making observations and following procedures.  For instance, her classroom was empty of all decorations at the beginning of the school year and everyday she would add new things in the classroom.  We have a journal where we would describe the additions to the classroom.   Then one day she gave us a quiz to take warning us to read through the entire quiz (like the directions said) before we started the quiz.  The questions seemed to be a bit complicated, but as a little 6th grader I did exactly what I was told and just continued to read.  The very last line of the quiz said something like, “ put your name on the paper and hand it in”. We were not supposed to do ANY of the quiz.  I think she didn’t end up counting the quiz, but it was a lesson in how important it can be to follow procedure.

I have another example of a teacher’s attempts to show their students that they should listen to what they say.  My 10th grade World History teacher was very good; in fact his history class that I still remember things from.  With all of this said, he also believed following rules was important.  One day he gave us an opportunity to work on something in class. Some students decided to take this as an opportunity to talk with friend instead.  I, on the other hand, was taught to follow rules so that’s what I did.  He let the class talk and not do their work but I could tell by the look on his face he was not happy.  The next day he decided that we were going to have a pop quiz on the material should have been working on the previous day.  He passed around the usual quiz paper except written at the top of my paper was “act like you’re taking the quiz”.  I did my work and I would never have been answer the questions he was asking for this quiz, it was VERY difficult.  It turns out that he noted who was doing work the previous day and they had what was written at the top of my paper.  Unfortunately, I think he did count their grades-many of which were failing.

So where does this leave me? I guess I can follow directions, mostly because I was afraid not to.