Standing at the front of the room, the teacher is met with an army of slumped-over, dead-eyed seniors. As if in a hivemind, they all have the same question on their mind: why are we still here?

It’s the last few weeks of second semester and the seniors have nothing left to do but take one or two inconsequential tests before they’re off for the summer and the rest of their lives, leaving high school behind.

Finals have always been– and always will be– a point of contention for students. Testing on material that students first learned months ago and haven’t touched since (only to forget it all over summer break and review next year anyway) barely makes sense in the first place.

Let alone for seniors who are all going on with their lives– whether they’re going right into the working world, taking a gap year, or going to different schools with different curriculums that might never even touch on some of the tests we studied and stressed over.

Frankly, it’s a pointless measure that only piles more stress onto an already nerve-wracking period in a high schooler’s life. Between figuring out our futures and still dealing with the present, adding on finals feels like one more unnecessary weight on our shoulders. 

Besides, the negative effects of standardized testing and high-stakes tests on students are well-documented and distressing. A study conducted by SAGE Publications found that “high-stakes testing causes damage to children’s self-esteem, overall morale, and love of learning.”

According to an article from the School of Education Online Programs, “[s]tandardized test scores are often tied to important outcomes, such as graduation and school funding. Such high-stakes testing can place undue stress on students and affect their performance.”

But ignoring all of that, focusing back on our impending future and, for a good chunk of seniors, the looming terror and thrill of college, finals aren’t even strictly necessary to get in.

“Most colleges will still want to be sent grades from your first quarter of senior year. However, their decision to accept or reject you into their institution will have already been made based on your grades from junior year,” said an article from the University of the People.

While colleges do always reserve the right to take away an admission (the most common reasons being poor grades, disciplinary infractions, and honor code violations), it doesn’t happen all that often. According to writer Genevieve Carlton, in an average year,  colleges only withdraw one to two percent of their admission offers.

Thinking about it, most seniors going to college already know this– in fact, most have already decided where they want to go and have been accepted into their college of choice, some even having this all figured out since first semester. 

Yes, high test scores do help, but for the most part they do not seem necessary to get into college.

But if not for college and if not to prepare for next year, what are finals for? They could be used as a way to reflect what a student’s learned, but that seems to measure more what they’ve memorized than anything.

So are finals really just a reflection on teachers? If so, it seems to be an unfair examination due to uncountable variables that would cause a student to struggle (like language deficiencies, learning disabilities, difficult home lives, etc.), and then reflect poorly on a teacher’s ability to teach. 

But how about our seniors and their finals? Well, a lot of us probably have teachers who give project-based finals which by the time the 24th and 25th roll around have already been finished and put in the grade book.

If that’s the case, you might have also heard your classmates (maybe even participated in) saying that they should have a free day, or cancel class, to which your teacher probably responded with something along the lines of: “We have to do something on finals day, it’s the district policy.”

Now, going onto the district policy page and searching “finals” or “tests” didn’t lead to anything, but after enrolling the help of a teacher I found: absolutely nothing.

Millard policy says x about finals, but they also most likely conform to the idea that testing is integral for students, otherwise, why would we still be doing it? But again, we know this isn’t necessarily true. Even looking at other local school districts, like Gretna, Elkhorn, and even Skutt, they get out several weeks early and some seniors might not even take finals

That doesn’t mean that our students are somehow superior (we are, but still) because we take finals. If anything, it further proves that we shouldn’t need to take finals either. If there are other school districts with curriculums and calendars like this being approved, I don’t see why Millard would need to keep seniors in school for an extra week or two.

No matter how you look at it, finals don’t seem to be worth it for a majority of the players involved. So let’s avoid the braindead, senioritis-induced zombies haunting the halls for the last few weeks of school. Dr. Bearinger and any other administrators reading this, on the behalf of all Millard seniors, I implore you: don’t make seniors take finals.