Do You Test Well?

While the ability to score well on tests shouldn't determine your success in life, it does. How much information you can read, store, and regurgitate within a stipulated timeframe seems to be all that matters.

So what happens to kids who fall between the cracks? What if you can understand the concepts but can't frame them into the words your teachers want before the sands of time run out? Are you stupid?

​The answer is...No. And you can believe me cos I DO test well. I have been blessed with a good memory that allowed me to absorb information in class, right down to tone and inflection, like a sponge.

"Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid."

Many of the kids who battled in class next to me are super successful right now. Children who teachers ignored so they could focus on their prize students, their A-getters, are knocking it out of the park.

So what does that mean? Should we not test kids at all? Hmmm...hear me out. What if kids were tested only to see what WE failed at teaching them and not what THEY failed to grasp? And what if there was no clock?

If a test could show us the deficiencies in our education system, how we communicate to youngsters the useless information we're asking them to learn and repeat by rote, I think we'd be embarrassed.

But only after WE scored an F would we understand the dilemma we have created. Then we would know how to help kids choose the right courses and not test gifted fish on their ability to climb trees.

​Do I think there are geniuses out there that have been overlooked because they can't put pen to paper? Yes, ma'am, I do. Do I think we should be doing more to encourage all of them to excel? You betcha.

It's not good enough to have a small percentage of students pass and loftily pretend like cream always rises to the top. Just admit you're a crappy barista and let's find a new way to teach and test.

Cos what does it mean if a kid can answer 300 questions in 3 hours and get 60% right or answer the same questions in 4 hours and get 90% right? Does it mean he knows the material or not?

It seems education departments don't really care whether kids know the work; they're actually testing them on whether they can spew it out within the deadline given. And why is that, you may ask?

Well, the purpose of public schooling had always been to churn out automatons for factories and never about educating the poor unwashed. When schools were created, rich people still hired governesses and tutors.

So what is actually being tested is whether a kid can "put in his hours" like a good little worker and learn on the job quickly so he can do what's expected of him before he clocks out for the day. Sound familiar?

It never was about their capabilities or wanting to see how much they know. It was about stamping out creativity and creating blue-collared workers who understand discipline and time management.

I mean, you can agree with me or you can be wrong, but let's at least admit that the old way isn't working and our fishes CAN swim and stop testing them on their ability to climb trees.