Exam Doozies and Doubts

Katherine Streeter for The Chronicle Review

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By Warren Goldstein

The term's over, thank God, and I've finished plowing through my U.S.-sports-history exams, but I can't forget reading: "Femininity on the other hand was something that girls created after masculinity." What? Incredulous when I came across that, at Hour 3, with a dozen booklets to go, I needed to vent. I e-mailed an old friend who teaches a similar course. He wrote back immediately, "What the ... . Why do we bother?"

His question, however flippant, brought me up short. It's a good