hrm.

I, for the last three years, have been wondering what the purpose of finals is. Well, beside stressing us out and asking us to regurgitate what's been told to us for the last ten weeks. Do professors need that sort of assurance? Did my students learn? Are the going to leave my class with my priceless knowledge?

I can pretty much vouch for the fact that no, I won't. I'll just walk away.

And it's because they are asking me to cram in ten weeks worth of stuff, and write it back down again exactly like I did the first time around. They are not asking me to think about the stuff and analyze what it may mean in the grand scheme of things, which I think would help it become more than just another string of words for me to spew out when asked.

I think that's the problem with education lately. I have gone through who knows how many classes, and I can honestly say that I would be hard-pressed to recall anything horribly specific past the date of the last exam.

Shouldn't the goal of educators be for their students to retain information given to them? I feel like a parrot, not a scholar. I will repeat whatever you say as long as you give me a biscuit, I mean, a grade.

There have been a few classes that I have come away with feeling like I learned something. Where the professor stared at us when we gave a practiced answer, and said, "Okay, but what does that mean?" I can still remember the concepts of those classes, and I can apply those concepts to things outside the parameters of an essay or multiple choice question.

And of course, as soon as that is asked, there is the one person who asks if they will get extra credit if they put their own opinion in an answer.

All the cheesy ads for Oregon State say that once you are done, you will have a quality education (and a very large, but now useless unless its halloween, wardrobe consisting of orange and black clothes). But what does that mean? That one was able to repeat enough things enough times in order to get a degree? If you were to ask a new graduate, what could they tell you?

"What did you learn a year ago?"
"Not sure, but I guess I passed, because now I have this nifty degree!"

Great.

Well, I have to get going. I have a final in about an hour.