I thought that this article would be appropriate to write on this week since we have been focusing on education for the last few days. A lot of us talked about standardized testing in discussion three, so I decided to complete my blog on the article, “Sending Off My Nervous Baby Into the World -- of Standardized Testing.” This article was written by an angry mother who sent her child off to school for her first standardized test. Her child is only eight and is in the third grade. Her child is a nervous wreck and feels personally responsible to do well on the test and not let her teacher down. The mother writing this article discussed that teachers and schools are doing whatever it takes for students to get a high score. Her child’s school is even allowing students to chew gum because it is supposed to stimulate brain activity. She states that the goal of the school is to look good, so that their school can come out on top. The mother talks about how her child wants to complete practice tests on Study Island every night to prep her for the test. She addresses that countries like Singapore prep even harder for tests, but in countries such as Finland, the world’s top-rated education system, have no standardized testing until the twelfth grade. She goes on to say that students, teachers, and schools are not judged based on standardized testing in countries like Finland. The mother also states that while East Asians are progressively seeking to get out of the anxiety-inducing, creativity-crushing, test-prep culture, we are looking to emulate them.
I think that standardized testing has become a problem in all schools. Just as this parent says, teachers and schools want their students to perform well on the test so that they can be looked as the better school, or to come out on top. Does it really matter if your school is on top, or better than the others? When I was in elementary, middle, and even high school, we had to take standardized tests, but it was okay if we performed poorly. Students, especially children should not have anxiety and be so stressed over standardized tests. Finland is one of the world’s top-rated education systems, and they don’t have standardized tests until the end of high school. It would not hurt to do away with some of standardized testing. Education should be exciting and fun, giving students the opportunity to excel and explore learning on their own. Standardized testing is taking away creativity. Students have began memorizing information just to pass a single test, then they forget all of it and do it again the next year. This is not what education should be about. Teachers have began to center the classroom around passing the test, not around the students and what the students are interested in. Learning has become boring, and students are less-involved in hands-on activities because of these tests. I believe that some testing is okay because, schools need to see how much students know, what the teacher needs to review, etc, but some standardized testing needs to be done away with. Children can become better learners and enjoy being in school this way.
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