I think most people tend to forget that the primary purpose of school is to learn - not to get good grades.

Objectively, learning C or reading Knuth is a better use of my time than doing some teacher's bullshit busy-work-so-their-class-seems-more-important homework assignment. If I truly and absolutely was looking out for my own education, I would take the zero and study on my own.

Unfortunately colleges seem to put stock in a student's GPA and I have to waste my time on useless bullshit.