"Facts are stupid things until brought into connection with some general law", Professor Agassiz said. Without general laws, facts are simply just random knowledge that can be applied to nothing, and would show absolutely nothing. Moreover, without general laws, facts can sometimes contradict themselves. Among authors who have written about this theme are Carol Bly of "Growing Up Expressive", and William G. Perry Jr. of "Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts".
             In "Growing Up Expressive", Carol Bly maintained that most teachers today want their students to have fun with their writing. Having fun is fine, Bly said, but perhaps "we writing teachers might do better to help them to explore the serious sites in their minds." She continued that we should "try to encourage them to express their mind, and acknowledge what they say". Whether the theme deals with "love, death, the cruelty of power, and time's curve past the stars" children are writing or drawing about, they usually express the facts, but they tend not show the general laws in which the facts are derived from. Rather than to respond to children, "Thanks for sharing", Bly encourages teachers and parents to make their child interpret the general law by asking them follow up questions.
             In "Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts", William G Perry Jr. recounts the story of a Harvard student who received an 'A' on an essay about two books he'd never read in an exam for a class he never attended, but managed to "bull" having only the name of the course, the titles of the books, and the author's names. Perry classifies most students into two categories where they either; "bull" or "cow," defined as such: To bull is "to present evidence of an understanding of form in the hope that the reader may be deceived into supporting a familiarity with content", and to cow is &quo...