From someone who is reasonably adept with ceramics and just bought another 100 pounds of clay this morning (aka I know how much 50 pounds of clay weighs) because I'm making a six foot tall piece in an intermediate/advanced ceramics class that I'm taking for fun: 50 pounds of clay is actually a lot, and not everyone can make a pot that big. So if someone managed to make one 50 pound pot, it would still require quite a lot of work. Plus, there's the assumption that the majority of the people in the class are interested in learning, so they will be trying to make something good.

>aka I know how much 50 pounds of clay weighs

Does it not weigh 50 pounds??

My mom has potted for over 40 years. We had a kiln and a wheel in our house throughout my childhood. I know a fair bit about it, even though I haven't done that much of it myself. At the end of the day, 50 pounds weights 50 pounds. it'd be hard to lift, but to make a crappy hugely thick base with something resembling a pot on top wouldn't take much effort.

If university taught me anything, it's that most people don't seem to be just interested in learning.

It's a story about students with some internal desire to be good at pottery, not just to get good grades. The grading system forces them over the hurdle of hesitation, to produce quantity without being paralyzed by anxieties over not being good enough, and then their own desire to improve nonetheless uses that imposed practice productively.

It would make more sense if they were just graded on number of pieces, considering it's a story not something that actually happened, they should just correct it.

I think the point was that they didn't do that, even though they could have.

It's not something that actually happened. It's hypothetical.

So then why are you worrying about how it could have actually happened.

Also "learn from mistakes" is taken for granted with quantity here, but it is very far from reality that learning comes inherently from practice. In the example, I would assume a student graded solely by weight couldnt care less about learning. I would create 10 pots reaching the minimum quality possible to be considered a pot and move on without looking back.

Also, it is very reasonable to assume that a student graded by quality would practice a lot and discard (and learn with) the worst pots.

You clearly know what's wrong with parable, so adjust it accordingly. Give an A to the top 25% of the class when sorted by number of pots made.

If someone told you to produce "a huge quantity of ceramics" would you go for huge in size or huge in number of items made?