I hate exams

I despise their ability to feel like they have stripped you of all your knowledge that you have so lovingly stored up over the past weeks.

I despise exams with only 12 questions so that if you miss even one you are pretty much screwed.

I despise being made to feel like I don't know anything about a particular subject well I KNOW that I have a damn good understanding of every concept presented thus far.

I despise the large influence exams have over grades as if a few pages of questions accurately reflects the learning that took place during the course of the class.

I despise all the things that those grades ride on and how everyone uses it as a measure against which we rate people into "those I will hire vs. those I will not" or "those who deserve free education and those who do not." Since when did numbers determine the ability of a person to perform well or be a contributing member of society?

These numbers divide our community into this ranking of good, better, and best. We begin to fail to see that each person is worthwhile, has an important place in our lives, and is a treasured being because they are a Child of God and made in His breathtaking image.

I mean, sure I don't want some surgeon cutting into me if they aren't capable of remembering all the things they need to know, and I don't want someone doing my taxes who isn't able to add and manipulate numbers well, but that isn't what I am talking about here.

I'm talking about how destructive these numbers can be. How they segregate people into these groups and give those with the higher numbers this idea that they are better than everyone else. There are few things that I despise more than a brainiac honors student who thinks that the world looks up to them because their GPA starts with the number 4 and when they graduate their first paycheck is going to have more zeroes at the end of it than mine. I'm tired of the engineers and scientists(including me) who think that they are better than those who study something that doesn't require pages of calculations for their homework. Who think that just because they get to wear white coats and have lots of extra letters before and after their name that makes them better than their peer sitting in the Liberal Arts building. I said to a fellow nerd recently that all those people in LA majors help make the world go round just as much as we do, and if they didn't do what they did, our lives would be a lot less awesome. His response was, "Yeah but they can't tell you how the world goes round." All I could think of in response was "Who cares?"

We are all made differently for a reason, because we all have a different purpose in life. So stop trying to rank people into good, better, best, super best and remember that super awkward, or super dumb person in your class was made in the image of our Creator and has just as important of a purpose on this earth as you do.