{"id":17609,"date":"2011-06-27T11:21:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T16:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=17609"},"modified":"2011-06-25T13:02:37","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T18:02:37","slug":"quirk-theory-full-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Quirk Theory = “Full of it”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Recently I posted on a book about quirk theory, namely, the theory that what makes some high school students less than attractive to the social matrix of power is also what makes them \u201csuccessful\u201d as adults. Now a new study by John Volkmer<\/strong><\/a> suggests that college students who are \u201cfull of it\u201d might be the ones who are balled up with creativity and capacity.<\/p>\n

In other words, as a college freshman, J.D. Salinger was full of it.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s insulting, the insult is borne as well by us, as teachers, when the most maddening of our students turn in the most egregious excuses for assignments. I am talking about students who we know are capable of a much better effort, and about \u201cwork\u201d that will take far longer to grade than it took to write.<\/p>\n

Upon being presented with such dreck, the teacher has a range of responses from which to choose. I want to make the case for mercy. I want to argue that incoherence, distraction, and defiance are necessary precursors to originality. Many students, not just the geniuses, need the time and space and freedom to be full of it.<\/p>\n

My thesis is not new, but it seems especially urgent right now, because it flies in the face of two powerful prevailing winds. On the one hand, there is the current crude reductionism of education to a financial transaction, masked by the pseudoscientific jargon of \u201coutcomes assessment\u201d and \u201cvalue added.\u201d On the other hand, faculty are obliged to have a heightened reactivity to any whiffs of crazy\u2014the hard-won lesson of incidents like the Virginia Tech rampage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Makes me wonder if we might have to factor in obnoxiousness or arrogance into the grading scale. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I posted on a book about quirk theory, namely, the theory that what makes some high school students less than attractive to the social matrix of power is also what makes them \u201csuccessful\u201d as adults. Now a new study by John Volkmer suggests that college students who are \u201cfull of it\u201d might be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nQuirk Theory = "Full of it"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recently I posted on a book about quirk theory, namely, the theory that what makes some high school students less than attractive to the social matrix of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quirk Theory = "Full of it"?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently I posted on a book about quirk theory, namely, the theory that what makes some high school students less than attractive to the social matrix of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-27T16:21:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-25T18:02:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/\",\"name\":\"Quirk Theory = \\\"Full of it\\\"?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-27T16:21:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-06-25T18:02:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Recently I posted on a book about quirk theory, namely, the theory that what makes some high school students less than attractive to the social matrix of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/06\/27\/quirk-theory-full-of-it\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Quirk Theory = “Full of it”?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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