Dr. Brandon Andrew Robinson, a gender studies professor at the University of California-Riverside, gave his students the “present” of an A on their final exam before Christmas break:
So, according to this teacher, abandoning finals isn’t a bad idea.
This is the same person that has “They/Them” in his Twitter bio and has the handle @DrKittyGirl. It’s a bit hard for me to take this professor seriously.
Having grades and competition is an important part of school. An argument can be made for how testing is done and what information students should be tested on, but they shouldn’t all be given a pass just because the professor doesn’t believe in finals.
Besides, Dr. Robinson, since you’re the professor of the class, you design the class structure. How about instead of eliminating the final, you could teach the students useful material and test them in a beneficial way to make sure the information is sticking?
I hate cookie-cutter finals where you cram information into your brain, spit it out and then forget it after. But, finals can be more in-depth and useful, if the professor does the proper preparation before the semester. Seems like Dr. Robinson took the easy way out and just handed everyone participation trophies.