Testing vs. Life Preparedness

If you are a student in the United States, your intelligence is measured only through standardized testing. Upon finishing high school and college I realized that I had been trained for sixteen years to take tests - and that my skill in doing so had no real-world application.

I became a teacher because I'm good at it, I enjoy teaching others and watching them grow. However, I believe that one reason the teaching turnover rate is so prolific is because once inside the system, teachers recognize all that is amiss with it but are powerless to change it.

We are so powerless in fact that even if we have children of school age, we aren't allowed to protest the fact that the Texas Education Agency dissolved the modified version of the STAAR test, leaving kids with learning disabilities or handicaps in the dust. Related article: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20140502-special-education-teachers-staar-questions-unanswered.ece

This is just one issue among many. Take No Child Left Behind for instance...because it exists, teachers are pushing kids through grade levels when they aren't prepared. My fellow teacher had a tenth grade student who wasn't aware that the beginning word of each sentence needed capitalized! And they made it to tenth grade! What this meant for me was that I had to spend valuable class time re-teaching concepts that should have been mastered years ago and being blamed for my students low test scores when the majority of my kids weren't prepared for the stringent district or state tests.

We had eight district tests and one STAAR test just for English. Imagine being that teenager taking 24 district tests, 3 STAAR tests and every other quiz and test for each of your seven classes. All our kids do is take tests and it is damaging the quality of their education. Apparently some at Harvard agree that this test-insanity isn't bringing about real results. Read the article here: http://www.iop.harvard.edu/case-against-standardized-testing

Speaking of education, how is the general populous not alarmed that our kids aren't being taught basic things that will benefit them in life? Why do schools not teach our kids how to drive, balance a checkbook, manage money, change a flat tire, prepare for an emergency, care for a child, buy a house, rent an apartment, cook or pay taxes? Did you feel prepared to face the real world when you graduated high school? Because that's what we're expecting from a lot of our students.

Parents are concerned about their kids' life preparedness, and so are teachers. Little of what I learned in school translated into the real world and the trend continues today. Grades are about looking good and getting into college, but after college, then what? Will it matter that you were on honor roll or an excellent test taker? Because real tests in life won't come in the form of multiple choice questions.

So why do we have people who have never taught a day in their life coming up with our curriculum? Why do we allow testing to consume the public school system? And why don't we teach basic life skills that would help our students immensely?

I urge you to get involved in informing yourself about this country's educational system because whether you have kids or not, one day these kids will be running our country and we need them to be prepared to do so.