Standardized testing limits our minds

The Herald (north suburban Pittsburgh weekly) ^ | Thursday, October 7, 2004 | Andrew Tsou

[Willie Green]

I am a 15 -year-old student at Fox Chapel Area High School, and I am writing in regard to the bout of standardized testing that is currently pervading our educational systems.

I must admit, there are some benefits to such an exercise, but, in the reality of our world, intelligence cannot be objectively measured. In fact, the very nature of our educational system is a dire reflection of its ideal state; instead of instructing students about ideas that actually have value in this world, teachers are told to edify for the test and to make students needlessly memorize a plethora of facts. The human mind can only be limited by the application of one's knowledge, and this is the area where my generation is severely lacking.

[Willie Green]

ping

[NJ_gent]

"In fact, the very nature of our educational system is a dire reflection of its ideal state; instead of instructing students about ideas that actually have value in this world, teachers are told to edify for the test and to make students needlessly memorize a plethora of facts. The human mind can only be limited by the application of one's knowledge, and this is the area where my generation is severely lacking."

This is absolutely correct. These couple of statements encompass almost everything that's been wrong with the education system in these united states for the past 100 years.

[atomicpossum]

I must admit, there are some benefits to such an exercise, but, in the reality of our world, intelligence cannot be objectively measured.

Dear Union Flack Masquerading as a Student:

We're not measuring your intelligence. We're measuring your level of education.

Now get back to class and do what you're told and stop with the pretentious 15-year-old nonsense.

[conservative cat]

I spent very little time in high school but when I was there, it seemed that (in English class in particular) all they did was prep for the SATs.

[Arizona Carolyn]

They are using our system to brainwash -- it's the left's version of the pod-people.

[kevkrom]

This guy at least sounds (from the over-use of uncommon words) like's he's well-prepped for the SAT verbal section.

[siunevada]

the very nature of our educational system is a dire reflection of its ideal state

Sorry, I'm going to have to lower grade. Please reconsider your use of the phrase 'dire reflection' and replace it with a phrase that more clearly communicates the thought you want to express.

[NJ_gent]

"I spent very little time in high school but when I was there, it seemed that (in English class in particular) all they did was prep for the SATs."

That's a symptom of the larger problem; that students aren't educated, but rather simply prepared for the next 'test'. Test, in this context, refers to the regurgitation of memorized text and the application of memorized formulas without any real thought process taking place.

[GSlob]

IIRC, the "Bell curve" contains a good chapter (with bibliography) on standardised tests and their correlation with general intelligence factor "g". One could probably even posit the existence of generalized creativity factor "c" along similar lines. But testing for it would be extremely difficult, if only because such generalized creativity would have to operate upon some database, and the test subjects would have to possess similar databases and have similar levels of proficiency in handling them.

[TXBubba]

Oh no! We want them to memorize facts? Obviously it hasn't been working. The amount of spelling and grammatical errors I find in letters/articles written by "educated" people is pathetic.

[NJ_gent]

"We're measuring your level of education."

So long as 'education' is (re)defined as the memorization of text and the application of memorized formulas, then you're absolutely correct. The person writing this is expressing the sentiment that our school system no longer teaches, but rather prepares students for the next 'test'. In the computer field, there are legions of folks who can pass any Microsoft certification test you put in front of them, but can't begin to solve actual problems. That's the issue at hand: students who can pass tests, but can't think.

[NJ_gent]

"Oh no! We want them to memorize facts? Obviously it hasn't been working."

That's because the brain is a muscle, not a sponge. In most cases these days, that muscle has atrophied by third grade because it receives little to no exercise in 'school'.

[The Westerner]

Based on the Prussian model of the 19th century.

[meyer]

"Standardized testing limits our minds"

Translation: "I'm bombing in math". Or, "Math's hard, lets go shopping".

[atomicpossum]

So long as 'education' is (re)defined as the memorization of text and the application of memorized formulas, then you're absolutely correct. -[snip]- That's the issue at hand: students who can pass tests, but can't think.

How could a socialized system like the public schools be expected to do that? Since today's schools aren't doing simple things like teaching reading effectively, teaching simple math, science, and history, how on earth could they teach logic and other skills? At this point in time, it would be more than beneficial if they simply could teach the three R's competently. I think this student (if it is, indeed, a student) is arguing to be taught to fly when the school system isn't even able to teach students to walk.

[MeanWestTexan]

To the kid I say: "Wah!"

[LibFreeOrDie]

Andrew, sweetie, if you continue to write such bloviating B.S., you will flunk the essay portion of the test!

(Does this pass for coherent writing at his high school?)

No other generation before you ever had to take achievement tests? Suck it up, kiddies. Many grown-ups have to pass tests to get and keep their jobs/careers.

[NJ_gent]

"Based on the Prussian model of the 19th century."

The head of the Dept of Education said in (I believe) 1896 that the purpose of education in American society was to form children into state-controlled automatons who would service the needs of business and government properly. Things took a rather drastic turn for the worse in the 1930s when the Freudians took hold of education and ran it entirely into the ground.

[Servant of the 9]

I must admit, there are some benefits to such an exercise, but, in the reality of our world, intelligence cannot be objectively measured.

Actually, it can be. It is.

This is the same sad loser's story sung by everyone who ever flunked a standardized test.

The most pathetic example of it was the late Stephen Jay Gould's "The Mismeasurement of Man" which he put together in an attempt at self denial after his son was born with Down's Syndrome.

So9