The way I see it, we educators don't really think some things through very well. I am thinking about testing. We seem to forget everything we have ever learned about learning styles, differentiation, and just plain old human behavior in general. In my opinion, we really miss the mark on those dreaded state testing days.

When I was a kid, we had standardized testing. I don't remember anybody making any big fuss over it, though. We pretty much put our desks back into straight rows, sharpened our pencils, and worked all day on the different portions of the test. Then a few months later, we took a note home with us that showed our moms and dads how close we were to the majority of the other "normal" test takers.

Now, we spend a lot of our time preparing for testing. Contrary to public opinion, we do not "teach the test". We do, however, spend a lot of time teaching the strategies for passing it. We constantly adjust our teaching to make sure we cover everything that might show up on the test. If we are worried about some of our students not being prepared well enough, we set up before school and after school tutoring sessions. Before I came to my current district, I also did Saturday tutorials with my class on the weekends leading up to the test. That was the expectation. I complied.

When the actual test days arrive, we really get weird. We break the kids up into tiny little groups and send them to strange places to take the test with a strange adult. We take away their recess and rotation classes (art, music, computers, PE) for the day. We put monitors in all the halls to shush them in case they don't pay attention to the hundreds of signs reading, "Quiet. Testing in progress." We go so far as to tell everyone to wear tennis shoes so that there won't be any footsteps resounding in the halls. Everyone speaks in whispers,

I don't know about the rest of you. When things are "different" at my house, I get an uneasy feeling. Let's say my wife, Rachel, is out of town, visiting her mother. There is a still quiet in the house that drives me to turn up the TV, put on the radio, or run a box fan, just to get rid of "the sounds of silence". I believe that creating this unnaturally quiet and sterile testing environment in the schools on test days affects some children in similar ways. Maybe that's why the custodians spend so much time mopping up vomit on those days.

Another thing we do is "silent lunch". We are so afraid the kiddoes will discuss the test, that we don't let them talk at all. That one window of opportunity for them to relax and unwind is inhumanely snatched away from them. Yet, we still expect them to perform, perform, perform. I think that is extremely unrealistic.

Okay... So maybe I'm wrong. I may very well be. But, I would love to work at a school that would at least give testing under normal everyday conditions a shot. I think it would be better for the kids. I know it would be better for me.