My third grade daughter is "testing" this week.
This means that she is taking our state's comprehensive assessment exam.
The test purports to measure student aptitudes in mathematics and reading.
If a school performs very well, it receives an "A" grade from the state and...
funding.
If it performs poorly, all kinds of unpleasant scenarios unfold.
Sounds good, right? Reward the schools with high-achieving students and punish all of those slacker-schools.
Maybe not so much.
I found a piece of paper underneath my daughter's pillow a couple days ago.
It was titled "My Worries".
Right underneath the world ending and giant earthquakes was the FCAT exam.
Wait...
What? My little girl is so worried about an exam that she feels the need to write it down? This is exactly why I unschooled her the first couple years of school.
I believe that it is vitally important that kids must be allotted the time to be kids before they can ever successfully develop into an adult.
Since when do we as a society subject our youngest members to such grown-up pressure? In the United States, this has a little something to do with the "No Child Left (Unscathed)...
I mean Behind Act".
Since the first day of third grade, we have been practicing for this exam.
Oh, trust me, it is a team effort to prepare for a standardized test.
(Insert irony here) Many children in her class have been tutored for the test, much of the school day is spent covering material that will be on the exam, and every evening my daughter completes homework that helps her to prepare for the test.
This is commonly referred to as "teaching to the test".
I do not blame the teachers.
They are just doing their job, and they do it well.
(I adore my daughter's teachers by the way) I do not even blame the principal, however; I think shouting at the tardy children with a bullhorn to hurry up and get to class this morning was taking things a little bit too far.
Granted, I have received fliers every other day explaining strategies by which I can "calm my child" and "provide a stress-free morning" (not a chance in my house) on the days of testing.
We are going to get through this week.
Maybe the testing is not so much about math and reading as it is a lesson about handling the inevitable stresses and responsibilities in life.
So that, we can all learn to approach a stressful situation the way one of my daughter's classmates proclaimed his readiness yesterday in the schoolyard, "My mom thinks I'm ready.
My dad thinks I'm ready.
My teacher thinks I'm ready.
My tutor thinks I'm ready...
I guess I'm ready!" I am still hoping for that childhood thing to hang on a little bit longer, though.