Funny. I had a similar experience myself in art class in high school. The assignment was to take a photo from a magazine and reproduce its likeness with pencil and paper. I must have just had good shape and spacial recognition because the drawing I made just happened to be approximately the same size and proportions of the magazine photo I was using as reference and, so, the teacher accused me of simply tracing it. I got a zero on the assignment and was accused of being a hack in front of all my peers even though I drew it freehand, from sight (the way we were instructed).

IMHO there's too much emphasis placed on doing things the "right" way and not enough on actually getting things done. Even if I did simply trace the photo, I still would have had a learning experience, engaging pencil, hand, and paper and understanding a bit more about how they work (to me, the purpose of the assignment). Regardless of how a thing is made, if it actually gets made and gets into other people's heads and gives them an experience worth having, I think it has done its job.

I took up my dispute with the vice-principle along with my parents and redid the assignment on thick, opaque card-stock (that couldn't possibly be used to trace through) and reproduced another photo with just as much accuracy. I went on to attend art school and win illustration awards despite my horrible experiences with art in high school, but I worry that another student might have abandoned their pursuit of art and deprived the world of their creativity, given such negative feedback. I feel we all need to lighten up a bit.