SAT, ACT, PSSA, PAPA... a bunch of letters mashed together that will basically determine your future. Fair? Some may say. But for those of you like me that don't find the need to fill in little bubbles for hours on end just to see how good you are at test taking, not so much. Standardized testing is such a controversial issue in education today. Those in favor of them say that they are a fair and objective way to determine a student's achievement. In opposition, others say that they are not fair at all and do not measure a student's achievement.
These tests are an extremely unfair way of determining how smart a student is. And then to have these tests determines the rest of our lives? How ridiculous. They basically are just showing how well a person can take a test. So let's picture this for a second: no studying material, monotonously filling in little bubbles, straining to stare at a computer screen, a minimum of three hours sitting in a hard, plastic chair, and an empty wallet. Sounds fun, right? Not exactly the way I want to spend a Saturday morning. Now on top of all of that, we cannot forget about all of the anxiety and angst these tests cause as well. While the testing proctor peers over their book of choice, you can't help but become so anxious and overwhelmed by the feeling of being rushed or failing. You don't find out for weeks how you did either. So there are a few more gray hairs thrown your way.
So what exactly are we teaching in schools these days? Simple. We are teaching for the test. As a future educator, this is so disheartening and frustrating. Children are being taught to be robots. To be machines that are given information and memorize it exactly the way it was given to them (without any room for improvement) and use that information to progress on the same exact path as every other human being. We should be teaching and raising the future leaders and members of our world to be creative and critical thinkers. We don't want close-minded individuals that only prepare for what they need to know. We want someone who will think outside of the box and challenge not only themselves but others.
So where do we go from here? Great question. This is something that we should all be thinking on. There is no need to sit in a boring room that someone had to take all the posters down from and take a test that is supposed to test how smart we are. I want to be tested on how well I can apply my knowledge. I want to someone to WANT to see how much passion and drive I possess. And quite frankly, these standardized tests are doing nothing but taking that creativity, drive, and passion away from us. But hey, for now we can just keep making patterns in our Scantrons!
