So Much for Regular Posting

I've been stupid busy with school lately. I probably averaged 14-hour days this past week, mostly reading/grading essays. As if working that much weren't bad enough already, to be reading teenager writing almost non-stop for a week straight will make a person go batty. It just sucks the soul right out of ya. And the worst part is, it's all been in preparation of the TAKS test.

I know it's important that we leave no child behind, but does that mean we should drag them all kicking and screaming across the finish line of mediocrity? Sure, for the most part, the knowledge and skills being evaluated by standardized tests are valid, but does that mean that these sort of tests should be the primary, if not the only, basis of measuring the success and failure of students, teachers, and districts? Many Texas school districts have aligned their curriculum with the TAKS test and spend most of the year preparing students for it. I've heard stories of schools that require their students to memorize a prefabbed essay prior to the test and encourage them to write it as their own. And this is called education! Creativity and free inquiry be damned. Guiding students to the discovery of truths is too challenging, too messy. Instead, pump them full of hollow facts and let them feel like they're getting smarter. That's easier to accomplish and, more importantly, easier to measure. So we'll have the kids take one day-long test, have the computers quantify the results, allow politicians to grumble over the numbers, become smarter in data, hire and fire teachers as needed, and we'll call it education.