this article hits so close to home with my experience teaching this semester I feel personally attacked. It makes me sad. I'm really enjoying reading the discus

this article hits so close to home with my experience teaching this semester I feel personally attacked. It makes me sad. I'm really enjoying reading the discussion others are having so I will contribute to anecdotes that I think are telling of just what the author is getting at. 1) About a year ago I was teaching a class that included working with a user group from a country in Africa. 2/3rd of the way through the semester, after submitting an extensive (and well done) research paper on the country's culture, norms, people, and public health needs a student asked me flat out "Is Chad a real country or did you invent it for this project". School is so internalized as a game that they don't even know that they are approaching school as a game. 2) I recently gave a test and received a number of regrade requests. One student had written two paragraphs to answer a question needing one sentence. His regrade request (after seeing the key) was to include the first five words of the first sentence, and ellipses, and the last four words of his last sentence and ask for credit "because the answer was in there". Another asked for a partial credit because 'I understood it even if my answer wasn't right'