Your post is timely. This past Tuesday I took a midterm test in an instructional technology class. It took me two and a half hours to complete (several people in the class did not complete it). I wrote (by hand) a total of nine pages (plus what I did on scrap paper - and did not turn in). My hand ached afterwards.

Sadly, less than 10% of what appeared on the test would be applicable in a job, whether the job be non-profit, profit or governmental. In fact, if you took the dated ideas and concepts on which we were tested into your job, you would be laughed out of the office. And rightly so.

Especially frustrating is that this is a graduate level course. For an "educator" to insist that graduate students (or any student for that matter) memorize meaningless, unapplicable data, that will be forgotten in a matter of weeks, is absurd.

Sorry Harold. Didn't mean to turn your fine blog into RantSpace. You just struck a chord with me (as you often do).