Testing Versus Teaching

Jordan Journals has been slow to publish these last 10 days because of the Moslem and Christian holidays. As nice as all the celebrations have been, I regret that I wasn’t able to spend as much time with the grandchildren as I would have liked. They return to school the day after tomorrow and immediately begin their mid-term exams. It seems to me that their time and ours is always measured by testing schedules.

Mid-terms and finals are probably inevitable, but I think that my grandsons have had one week of studies and two weeks of exams since they started to go to school eight years ago! (Or maybe it was the other way round.) Regardless, it looks as it Jordan has adopted the practice of testing over teaching! I was interested in an article I read yesterday about the extremely unpopular law in the USA called No Child Left Behind. Teachers abhor the law because it penalizes schools by withholding Federal funding if test results are poor. Presidential hopeful, John Edwards, commented on the law that you don’t make a hog fatter by weighing him, you feed him. It follows that you don’t educate a child by testing him, you teach him! And I, for one, would love to enjoy my grandchildren while they are still children without the pressure of their studying for exams all the time.

ASH