Testing, Testing

I attended high school orienation with my 8th grader tonight. All of the departments were supposed to have tables set up with information and faculty members ready to chat.  Most of the departments just had samples of the text books used, and English and Math were nowhere to be found.  The most interesting table was Industrial Arts--they had a slick presentation, all sorts of handouts, complete lists of course descriptions and a fun faculty guy who was tossing out candy bars and happy to talk to parents and students. One table had some generic "school success" handouts, complete with lamer-than-usual clip art.   My daughter noted that a picture of a sci-fi 50s robot was next to the word "physics."  "Robots don't have anything to do with physics," she railed.

But, that took all of five minutes, so we went to the auditorium and read our books while waiting for the ubiquitous rah-rah welcome and Power Point presentation.  The whole thing rubbed me the wrong way.  Much of the presentation was geared toward advanced students and their parents--focusing on Advanced Placement and Honors courses, with a token nod to vocational, "essentials" (bottom track) and "special populations" students.  Had I been there with a non-college bound student, I would have wondered why I even bothered showing up.

There was a great deal of talk about careers and future and how what you do in high school determines where you go the rest of your life.  They honest-to-god talked about how all this stuff would go down on your "permanent record," without the slightest bit of irony.  It was delivered as an implied threat.  And there was talk of all the tests that are required throughout the "high school career" starting with the pre-pre-pre ACT in 9th grade.  The importance of these tests was stressed over and over: not because these tests contribute to real learning and understanding, but because "they are required." This too was delivered without irony and rancor.  If I were an instructor, I'd be furious at having to spend so much time on standardized test prep. I'm a parent and I'm furious that so much of my kids' time is wasted on teaching testing.

My daughter learned that she'll have more choice in high school, although not was much as she'd like.  She was quite taken by the Arts for Life table and probably would happily have signed on for the vocational track with its many offerings of computer classes.  Part of me wishes that she could take as many of those classes as she'd like, but it's all about track-track-track, test-test-test.  Real choice is an illusion,  available only to those who don't care about their future or their permanent records. 

Comments

[Ankah]

The EIGHTH grade? Good lord, I was still worried about bras and periods and getting out of gym class. I thought nothing of high school and "the rest of my life." I'm sure if someone actually documented what I did in the eighth grade as predicting what kind of person I would turn into, they never would have guessed that I would have excelled in higher education, much less developed into a functioning human being. I mean, really. EIGHTH GRADE? WTF?

[shoe]

Don't you want to throttle the people who tell your poor kid those are the best years of her life?

shoe