I Could Say So Much More… A Teacher’s Controversial View of Test Day
On a rainy day in May, my students sit in rows.
I woefully scream at them that they better go to the restroom now because soon they will have to be escorted due to concerns of disseminating information. This is not the way I want to run a classroom. It feels eerie and totalitarian.
No groups.
No talking.
No asking questions.
I have to tell them that I can pronounce a word for them but cannot help them to understand. Cannot. Help. Them. It’s heartbreaking. They stare at me blankly for a few seconds as this is something they have never heard me say before. They realize I am serious and put their heads back down and continue trudging along with their #2 pencil. Everything boiled down to A, B, C, D. Is anything so simple?
How many teachers do you know that got into teaching because they didn’t want to help kids? If you do, please tell them to leave the profession.
Their options when they are finished? Sleep. Read a book for pleasure. That’s it. They are told, “please do not do any of your school-work at school; it may help you or others to know information,” which may better your score on the test on which you were told to do your best. God forbid.
This is the reality when standardized testing- which is done multiple times a year across multiple grade levels- it’s disheartening and needs to be stopped.
I want to come to school every day, telling every student that I would be more than happy to help them understand. I want my classroom to be warm, inviting, and secure. I want it to be a place that students look forward to coming.
When they are stumbling through a passage they don’t understand, I want to ask them questions in order to make them see that they are understanding so much more than they thought, and lead them to the answer and have a moment of bliss when they realize they did know and they don’t have to put it in a bubble.
Does learning need to be measured? Absolutely. Do students and teachers need to be held accountable? Sure. Surely, though, there must be a better way.
Erin Cryder is a freelance writer specializing in all things childhood and education. She is a high school English teacher, Reading Specialist, and Mama to one feisty, adorable toddler. To learn more, contact her at erin.cryder@gmail.com.
