Finality

Ringing Bells, Ringing Bells, it's finals time in the city. [Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.] It is the end of the semester and teachers have visions of tortuous exams dancing in their heads. Or so most students imagine. While test anxiety can be a difficult stress for some, it is more like the anxiety of anticipation over any performance--the starting shot fired at a track meet, the solo in the choir, the first entrance on stage as the curtain rises. So, here's where the pencil hits the paper, and what's in the mind hopefully comes spilling out on pages and pages. All that missed work also has to be completed. [The picture above is from Eric Conveys an Emotion.]

This year, for some classes I take the opportunity to have students write a self assessment. Own their work and grades, in a way. Stopping to reflect on where you have come and set new goals for the direction you are going is probably more important for me to see than a mere analysis of content knowledge. That I can do any time. But the heightened anxiety of semester end and "a final" brings out the most honest reflections.

I am relatively pleased that many students, among spewing content knowledge that they have learned in the last four months, also note what they have learned about themselves, as a person and a student. Most are ready to take much more responsibility for their own learning, and that, for me, is a significant step on the road to autonomy and lifelong learning. Most are painfully aware of inadequacies in this area, and set appropriate goals for the next semester to help overcome those. But they are truly fledglings and will need a lot of falls before flying.

In a process like education where measurement is so difficult and no final product is completed, finals give that sense of completion and renewal. How do we see where we have come? What we have learned? Like Justice Stewart famously trying to characterize obscenity, I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it. It is an end to something, even if it is an artificial end. A time to stop, reset, and begin again.

Some final projects, and work, and reflections are inspired. Some not so much. Few are a disaster, and, if they are, it is almost always due to lack of caring and attention, not lack of ability.

Final. Finally. Finality. The end. Fini. Now we can begin again. Like New Year's resolutions, however, goals for the future need a lot of support to be successful. We'll see.