Some how in the new world of technology and all the various styles of individualized learning, we are stuck on the industrialized ways of assimilating information. Dam, that was a lot of big words.
Dumbing-Down Our Children
Let’s make this a little more simple: If our modern world were equivalent to an iPad, then our present-day school system would be the first Macintosh. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has changed in the way of educating students. The methodologies, strategies, and material are all the same. We may have added some computers, thought up some techniques to deliver the information in a slightly less boring way, but it’s all the same.
Speaking of the same old sh**, we still have antiquated ways of thinking proliferating throughout the system, which is why we still have this out-dated, fossil of a system. Testing is one of them. Students and families have their own choices to make, so if they like (maybe even love) this system, they are free to. My stand is it’s based in needless theory and is a complete waste of time and life.
We are in the age of the internet, yet there is still this wise-man-on-top-of-the-hill-telling-us-what-to-do mentality. In reality, most of us like to be lead. We’ll say we want to be independent, but as soon as the opportunity pops up to take off the seat belt and take a risk, we freeze. Afraid of what’s on the other side of trying.
What Is Standardized Testing For?
I thought the purpose of going to school was to learn the material in order to be able to apply it in the real world for the sake of making a living. Most of us don’t want this life, but it seems that it’s the only one on the menu. We go into our favorite restaurant and their is a list of infinite choices, but when it comes to your life, there’s only two: Get good grades, graduate, get a job OR drop out, live on the street, and let life crush you.
Vomiting theoretical hypotheses onto a Scantron sheet is no way to measure the infinite capacities of the human mind. It’s a f***ing joke. If we let people run our lives, they will. Testing and schools are just one more way to make that process easier.
As part of the human race, I believe it’s inherent in us to be thinkers who explore and try to find the perfect note in a line of horrid music. In the present day, our longing to be explorers is slowly eroded from our bodies, similar to the famous nose of the Sphinx in Egypt. We begin to zero-in on grade point averages and entrance applications instead of the meaning of life, how to better humanity, or the reason why we were put here.
Think before you do. That’s all I ask. Think before you do.
Professor X