Learning that my expectations are wrong!

In the fall of 1986, I started attending college at the University of Maryland, Munich Campus.  I took most of my required core classes, but avoided a couple that made me nervous.  I knew I had to take them, but I delayed it because I knew the classes would involve a lot of reading and writing.  I love to read, but  I've never thought myself a good writer.  Fast forward to 2015 and I was at the point where I needed two core classes to complete my degree...American History and World Literature.  It was time to hunker down and enroll in World Literature.

I walked into class with my book and planned my trip to Books-a-Million to get the required reading list.  But Dr. Hamon's version of World Literature was the complete opposite of what I expected.  If you've ever watched Charlie Brown, you can see what I expected!

As the first class meeting closed, I realized there was no required reading list. This was not a "book club" style class where you read books and write multiple, boring essay papers.  This was a class where we blogged about topics related to the snippets of stories that we read.  This was a class where we researched a topic of our choosing, yes, OUR CHOOSING, and then updated a Wikipedia article and wrote a short essay, as "the" class subject matter expert.

So what did I learn?  I learned not to judge a book by it's cover (no pun intended).  I also learned that I'm a pretty decent writer.  I throughly enjoyed writing and reading the weekly blogs.  Finally, I learned that there are many ways to teach and learn material and that classroom environments of today are not the same as those of 1986.  I have zero regrets about avoiding the class in 1986.  In 1986, I would have learned that nodding off might get you some public humiliation along with a bad grade!