Well- doesn’t that illustrate the whole point? If your teacher is willing to accept some totally unsupported and sketchy source- it’s likely because they probably didn’t bother to check it themselves right? And what are the main reasons why teachers don’t except sources like Wikipedia? 1. It is generally third party sourced by someone else- meaning you don’t actually learn how to check sources and do research and verify information independently. And 2. Unless you check all those sources cited on Wikipedia- and then THEY check all those sources- how could they all be verified?
So to issue 1: learning how to verify sources of information is an important critical thinking tool. Say that someday you’re in a decision making position where you rely on others for information... and one of your people gives YOU a 20 year old dead junk source? Will you “fall for it” like your teacher?
To issue 2: if you site Wikipedia... well... how do we know Wikipedia isn’t citing the exact same dead page that the person in the second panel of the meme cited? We don’t right? And say we actually WERE going to check.... well.... it’s one step harder isn’t it? Multiplied by how many papers a teacher must do?
But ultimately- your teacher probably doesn’t have the time or energy to check everything you do. That’s both a compassionate reality of the life of teachers- they can’t or won’t spend 24/7 looking over your work... and a valuable life lesson- because they may not check over your work like a detective- but if you do something obviously dumb like cite a source they told you not to... they WILL notice that.
And welcome to being and adult. Basically no one has the answers- but the most successful people combine knowing the most with organization and being good at faking the rest. If your boss tells you they don’t want you investing in stocks for agricultural commodities- but you feel that industry is going to see gains... if you invest in corn and make 2% you’ll likely get yelled at. If you invest in tractors or an irrigation program... those aren’t agricultural commodities.
You’ve gotta be smarter than the piece of paper- the rules- in front of you. You take the lessons from school that you decide to learn. For some- that lesson is to do what you’re told without question. That usually leads to modest success or poor results. Some just like to FEEL smart by pointing out how dumb it all is. If you ARE smart- you’ll see that most things can be called dumb- but if the world is dumb and you can’t figure out how to get what you want from it.... how smart are you? Learn when to bend the rules- when to break them- and when to kiss the ring.
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