Reading Days 7 and 8

There is an interesting debate going on on Ann Althouse's blog about whether students believe that professors use the final exam as a rewarding educational experience. I found my way to her blog when I heard her speak on the public radio program Open Source. The topic of the show was Steven Colbert's hilarious and powerful performance last saturday at the white house press core dinner. I pretty much didn't agree with anything she had to say, so I wanted to check out her widely read blog to see what she is about. Lo and behold, she is a law professor, and although I continued to find little to agree with after reading some of her posts, I do think that there is some rewarding educational experience from taking a final. As I think I said in an earler post, the final is about the only time in the course of the semester that you get to see how all of the material you have learned comes together. The topics are no longer isolated into neat units that can be broken down to managable reading assignments and 50 minute lecturs. I think there is something rewarding about making connections and seeing pieces of a puzzel fit together. However, I do not think most students see it this way. One commentor cynically noted that most students just see law school as a means to a high paying job and the only thing rewarding about the exams is that they are necessary to purchase a nice car. I would, however, that even if many students are motivated by money, they realize that they have to get a good grade to get a good job, so much of their thoughts surrounding the exam are simple on getting a good grade. I believe students are focused on getting done with the best possible results than they are on the actual experience of the exam. Especially this semester, students seem to see each exam as one less barrier to some imagined summertime freedom.

I have made a personal commitment to not talk with other students about the exam after it is over, except very generally, so I can't really say how their experience the exam. I do this for my own sanity and because once you finish one exam, unless it is the last, there is still more studying to be done, and when you talk to another student about the contents of their exam, inevitably they will have seen something that you did not see. This kind of exchange can only lead to the feeling that you did not stack up to the other students, and even if you spotted 8 issues that the other student did not see, you are going to think about the one you missed. Therefore, if there is a rewarding educational experience, it is wholly personal and I don't think it is reflected so much in the grades, and because law students are cut from an especially competitive and over-achieving cloth, grades get a lot of the focus of many law students minds, even if they will become wholly irrelavant three years down the road.

I am in the middle of a three day civil cram-it-in-the-brain procedure. This material is definatly more engaging than easements. The weather has turned cloudy again, and I am grateful.