Every year at finals I get sick, truly physically sick. The stress, the lack of sleep, and the on-the-run-bites-to-eat all combine for the perfect storm of unhealthy. Some people shrug when I tell them this and say that it makes sense that I would get sick if I'm not sleeping or eating right. For me they're only naming the symptoms, not the disease. That's right, I'm saying it, finals are a disease of the education industry, but more importantly they don't make any sense.

     Finals do nothing to measure our intelligence or even how much we've truly learned in the class. The only thing finals do is measure how well we can cram...or cheat. We've been proving our understanding of the material all semester long through essays and exams, so what does that make Finals? Double Jeopardy? Cruel and Unusual?

     Also, requiring teachers to give students finals jeopardizes the honest value of our education. Professors have told me that they are now required to give all their classes finals and that their department heads will be going around and making sure they do. What is this, the U.S.S.R., Nazi Germany? Since when has the school made the academic environment one in which professors must look over their shoulder for Big Brother?

     Teachers know better what is appropriate to teach their class than some administrator who's delicate sensibilities where upset by a few students who drank during finals. You want to know why we drink...because we're so stressed out that if we don't drink till we can't feel feelings we'll blow our brains out!!!

     Do you know how many college students kill themselves every year? I can't say I blame them, no one should have to handle this much stress. Is it really necessary to add onto that stress with a marathon of exams and essays. Wouldn't it make sense to spread such things over the course of the semester. Oh wait, we already do that! Thank god I don't go to a "better school," I'd probably be a drug addict instead of just an alcoholic.

     For an educational institutions that "claims" to put the education and well being of their students first, I say they put their money where their mouth is and do away with this cruel and unhealthy practice known as finals.