The Eternal Argument

[Jagger Cyde]

To get a passing grade you need to show that you understand the elements of each genre. I don't have any problem with teachers adhering to that. Teachers need to be able to assess your understanding of why something is the way it is. Revolutionaries are rebelling against something -- and to be able to rebel against something you need to know exactly what it is and why you want to subvert or shatter it. Breaking the rules without knowing what they are isn't revolution, it's just yelling incoherently into space and sometimes hitting on the right word.

Yes, teachers should encourage exploration and exploitation of generic features... but students need to remember that you need a foundation to build any lasting monument.

I agree completely. I'll use Jiu Jitsu as an example because it is one of the few things I understand very well. There are two main training methods to improve.

1. Technique
2. Sparring (Rolling)

Technique is very important. It obviously build the basics (Which, like in most things) are the best thing to have. You always need to review technique. Especially when you are new to the sport. Someone who is brand new should be spending about 90% of their time training doing just technique. Similar to someone who is just beginning writing should be doing way more writing exercises than just sitting down and start writing. However the longer you are involved with the sport the more and more you find rolling the be the more beneficial course of training. This is because you can drill and try to learn as many moves as you want, but until you find what actually works for you, then your whole game is useless. So in sparring you become more comfortable with what you know will work. Similar to how once you've been writing for some time you will find that just writing freely about anything becomes the more beneficial way of improving your abilities.

Someone who only trains technique will find themselves very lost in an actual match. And someone who has only ever sparred will find themselves lacking versatility. I would explain how that part translates to writing, but I feel like it is fairly obvious.

I hope my example wasn't hard to follow.