It’s finals time. Yes, I know I’ve already finished two classes, but those were two in which I could give presentations in lieu of finals. So I still have three finals to go.
A friend and I were talking yesterday. She says she has to have finals, as per school rules. So she has them to her house. One class, on mythology, watched an early-bootlegged copy of 300 and ate fajitas. One class is coming over for homemade pizza.
Why do we have finals? Dr. Crazy asks that question on her blog, Reassigned Time. I don’t know the answer.
But I like what she did with her majors’ class and I like what I did with my humanities class.
Can someone remind me why we have finals? Is it because we are modeled on the British system which ONLY has a final? That makes more sense, although I don’t like that system either. Made a B in the only course I ever took like that, studied like crazy, wrote six hours for a two-hour course, and still only made a B. I bet that is why we have finals though. And I don’t think they are very useful.
I really don’t believe in “finals” either. But there is a notion that it rounds out the student experience and lets the students comprehend their accomplishment in completing the course. Yes, this is an artificial criterion. But what in academia isn’t?
Eddie, That’s an interesting notion and I can see how it “finishes” the semester for them. I think my friend’s eat-and-chat final works for that, too, though. Definitely like the presentations that Kim recommended, though not for composition.