College, Finals, and Wisdom
One of our CSF students was speaking about one of his final exams with some concern. I shared the following information with him, and thought it might be worth recounting here.
Adult life has brought a number of surprising changes in perception. The first happened when I attended our daughter’s parent-teacher conference at her school when she was in second grade. I realized then that my role had changed forever–I was no longer the kid being evaluated, but the parent being involved in our child’s education. The next happened when I was dealing with employees–hiring, reviewing, and (in one case) terminating. It was then that I realized that the employment process was as challenging for the employer as for the employee..
Now, as a college instructor, I have discovered that the same thing is true, and this is what I shared with this student. Any final project, whether it is a paper, and exam, or a presentation, is just as stressful for the instructor as it is for the student. In a very real sense, it becomes a very personal evaluation of the teacher’s ability to express his or her ideas and communicate knowledge to the students. This is why it is disheartening to an instructor when a student earns a low grade. I encouraged our student to keep this in mind, and remember that every final exam is, ultimately, a conversation with the instructor. It involves managing knowledge, ideas, and information, and presenting them in a way that demonstrates mastery of the material and respect for the instructor. By the end of a course, most of us (instructors, that is) have developed relationships with our students and frankly, we care about them.
Exams and final projects do not exist in a vacuum, but are always positioned in the social, cultural, foundational, and philosophical context of the course. Keep this perspective in mind throughout a course, and the grades seem to follow.
This same factor applies throughout life. Most of our significant relationships–whether in the workplace, at home, in the community, at church, or anywhere else–only thrive when they are conversations. The two-way-nature of human communication is essential in nearly every aspect of our lives.