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expect, but they were all centrally networked. The professor could log into our lessons any time he wanted to and see exactly where we were in the curriculum. This was before the days of the Internet and household networking, so the concept seemed very futuristic and somewhat daunting. As if all this were not enough, we had a time element to contend with. We were allowed only so much time to give each answer. What was particularly bad about this was that our class was unknowingly a test group. We were being timed, but a sister class covering the same lesson plan was not. We however did not know that we were the only ones with a time constraint on our answers.
    I won’t go into how I uncovered this secret, but whatI learned was that someone in the college wanted to see if the students would learn the same material faster if put under a time constraint. This was an interesting idea, except that, since we were the first attempt at this procedure, the faculty didn’t really know what a reasonable amount of time would be to give a student to calculate the answers to the computer’s questions. They grossly underestimated, and no one was able to answer the questions in the time allotted. A correct answer that took too long to type in was considered wrong by the computer, and hence a failure. Our frustration was compounded by the fact that the computer-lab work counted as 33 percent of our final grade in the class.
    On the first day of class, we received a schedule sheet describing our expected progress on the computer on each day. Virtually no one could come even close to meeting this schedule, and the farther behind students got, the more stressed they felt. One day the professor made the mistake of stating rather casually that people were not keeping up with their computer work and reminding us to not forget the impact of this nternet aade. The unexpected reaction he received was frighteningly reminiscent of the old westerns in which an angry mob hunted for a good rope and a tree to go with it.
    At this point, the faculty did not realize that they had put students in a no-win situation. They assumed that the time allotment was sufficient and fair and that the reason for the students’ difficulties was that they were not puttingin enough time. Students, in reality, were putting in way too much time, and were even neglecting other classes in an effort to catch up in this class. Some of them were visibly distraught.
    Yet I was immune to all this angst because I was an adult student. I had paid for my class and I really didn’t care about the grade I received. I was interested only in information that would be helpful in my musical composing efforts. I didn’t have to mail a copy of my grade home to my parents, because I was on my own. Because I was older than the rest of the students, I also had the perspective that this class wasn’t going to make or break my life. I had failed tests before and I was still here. I felt almost like a wizened parent watching children react to something that, to them, was so important and yet at some point down the road would seem so insignificant.
    The point of this story was how the other students resolved the problem. In short, they cheated. They very blatantly cheated. Anyone could go into the computer lab at any time. It was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and the professor was never around. Once the students found out what the questions would be, they would write down all the answers on a memo pad and walk into the lab, setting the pad on their laps. Before the computer finished asking the question, they were typing in the answer. They caught up on all their work, received perfect scores, and felt very justified in their actions. Unfortunately, they learned little to nothing about music theory.When I was working onan assignment at a computer and talking to them, I would hear the same thing over and over again: “This class and this computer are not going to ruin my