Self Motivated Questions

Who knew rocks were so complicated? I remember taking my dad's hammer and breaking open rocks on the walkway. Does every kid do this?
I'm trying to feverishly finish my BYU Independent Study Geology class. Igneous rocks have been a insurmountable wall twice before as I attempted to make progress on this class. This time I decided that I would get it over with no matter what grade I might get on the test. I managed to squeak out a C-. I never knew volcanic rocks were so complicated! I still don't quite understand all the information, but I knew where to find it in the book. Did you know that different kinds of magma make different kinds of rocks? Did you know rocks have cleavage? It's all amazingly confusing and beautiful.
I suppose if I wasn't doing a class I might be more interested. I am beginning to understand how making a normally fascinating subject into a requirement and then judging someone on how much a person can spew back at an authority figure, can ruin the desire to learn the subject. There is definitely something to the theory that kids ought to be allowed to pursue knowledge according to their desires.
Self motivation is what really results in learning. I know that the assignments I have been given that allow me to chose the subject stick with me far longer than an assigned topic. Books I've read because I was curious teach me far more than those imposed on me by someone else's choice. Although I chose to learn Geology, I am finding that the structured study is killing my curiosity and making rocks baffling and boring. I wish I could just ask questions and get answers in the order that the questions come to me.