College of Education Professor Deron Boyles stood before the crowd of faculty and students at Northern Illinois University and asked them to take out a sheet of paper and a writing utensil.

He then instructed them to put their name in the top, right-hand corner of the page and to write the following two sentences, which he recited to them including where to place the punctuation: "I, first name here, am oppressed. If I were not oppressed, I would not be completing this sentence."

Boyles then asked if anyone had written the period at the end of the second sentence. Almost every person in the room raised their hands.

This exercise, which Boyles also does with his undergraduate students in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University, serves to demonstrate the difference between simply following directions for the sake of following them and truly contemplating what you're being asked to do in school.

"Why did you put the period at the end of the sentence? Because I told you to," he explained. "My point in the illustration is that students have been taught too well. They've been schooled too well. They've been trained to be a particular kind of student, and that student is one who follows directions."

As such, schooling has become more of a training ground for future workers rather than a place of learning, he argues. This focus on preparing students for their future careers is an important component of education, but Boyles hopes to see more students really reflect on the material they're learning.