<p>garland, way back in the 70’s I had a History prof who dinged me for an “original thought”. When I called her on it (Gee. Imagine that. ;)), I was told that I was an undergraduate and that I wasn’t supposed to have original thoughts as I didn’t have the original research from the source documents to back it up. The takeaway point was : she was the boss and I…was not. The rest of the semester went smoothly as I just fed her the party line. Later in my college career we had a speaker who posited the same thought. She pronounced it “brilliant”. I called her on that, too. (Gee. Imagine that. ;)) Her response? “Aaah. But he could back it up with his original research. You couldn’t.”</p>
<p>Edited: Admittedly, the assignment was not asking for original thought. I had it, so I wrote it. ;)</p>