Expressed Knowledge or Waste of Time?

Throughout my 4 year undergraduate degree, 120 credits translating roughly into 40 different classes/subjects, I am lucky to have had at least half of them leave a significant mark on my knowledge pool. Perhaps this is why I am a tad resentful of a class I am taking this semester in which the professor fully proclaimed that if I followed the readings and read the course notes (which she provides for the students, so we wont have to take the chance of taking our own notes and potentially missing the point of the lecture) that class attendance would do little to further my understanding of the subject matter. In a course where there is one assignment and one exam worth 50% each, it is diffcult to get enthused and give it your all.

In true spirit of procrastination (as has been a regular theme lately), I have a paper due on thursday - which I have yet to start. It is difficult for me to take what i have learned andt ry to make a 'creative' and 'fun' paper comparing social theory (from our coursepack) to a work of fiction .. and how the theory speaks to the character development. It is not an overly difficult assignment per se - since I did the exact same paper - different social theory (change instead of occupation) this summer, for the exact same professor. (and half of the readings/theorists were the same ...)

So I ask myself, have I learned anything? Was it worth the $166.00 I paid the University? This type of course goes against every 'opinion on education' bone in my body - yet, due to the vast selection* of courses that I had to choose from, there was little choice in the matter. So I take my credit, swallow my perception of education and crank out a paper in 48 hours (/sigh back to my old ways!) and get it over with.


*note heavy sarcasm