Exam Day

Giving oral exams today was really delightful--the kids were really scared and studied hard, but my point was not to give them a hard time in the exam itself. I simply asked them further questions about their papers, who their favorite person we read was, why, and what he said about the nature of man and the nature of politics. It was delightful to me to see the way that the course came together for them and to hear their reflections on it--sort of like an exit interview. It was delightful, too, to see the one boy who struggled most in the course with his carefully rehearsed answers:

Emily: "Who was your favorite philosopher that we read?"
D: "Probably Plato"
E: "Why?"
D: "He is probably the one I read most thoroughly."
E: "Who else?"
D: "Probably Aristotle."
E: "Why?"
D: "I also read him well."

I think those may have been the only two he read the whole of. I asked him which questions he wanted to answer--he told me about Aristotle and the relationship between politics and ethics in great detail (he's bff with the smartest boy in the class, and I could tell that they had studied together). He then suggested that we talk about Rousseau and education and he proceeded to tell me the focus of each of the five books of Emile (although he forgot one or two) and recounted the story of the boy flying the kite. I really can't express how precious this was. He couldn't remember much about the state of nature in Hobbes, but prompting helped.

And the boy from Columbia said that he most liked Hobbes and his view of man, but didn't agree with the government he promoted, and proceeded to explain why diffused power is better. He'll clearly be a politician.

The boy who won't stop talking was the only exam that went over ten minutes--it was more like fifteen. And he really wanted to squeeze in a few more questions before we finished, just to show me all that he knew.

What was really delightful was that it was one last opportunity to teach kids a couple of things that were unique to their interests in a one-on-one setting--I wanted to make a point about the relationship between Aristotle and Burke to the sweet, very young Republican girl, so I drew it out of her through the questions I asked. And I wanted to make a point about general and special revelation to the very smart boy, who is Jesuit educated and had already read lots of Aquinas and Augustine.

They were all very nervous as most of them had never taken an oral exam before, but, as I told one of my students, I'd never given an oral exam before (although I omitted the part in which I was very nervous, too). All in all, it was a wonderful, wonderful experience.