It Proves Nothing

"The Rise of Standardized Educational Testing in the U.S.: A
Bibliographic Overview" by Torin Monahan

I don't make straight A's. When I was in elementary school, I always got into that coveted top 1 percentile of students' scores on standardized tests. You would think by that indication alone I should be one of the smartest people in the country right? For my age way back when I was. I think standardized testing proves only one thing, that you can take a single isolated basic test well. I was never a straight A student all the way up through Highschool. I had a good GPA and all, but it had nothing to do with my test scores.

The American Education system should take a hard look at why it continues to do standardized testing. Each year classes stop for a few days so children can take tests, taking away from their learning time, costing millions in paper to print out all those tests and their test answer booklets, while offering nothing to the learning experience. Although standardized testing may seem of concern to only the education system, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about the performance of our children in school. Because let's face it, life is not like passing a test, it is much more like passing a class. If a child can succeed in their classes there is no need for these kinds of tests.

Essay I Agree With

C.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man

In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis postulates that modern educational methods are the downfall of mankind. I agree with his views on education because in my opinion education is often buying the rights to be able to work in fields that allow you to make more money than if you did not buy that education. Both C.S. Lewis and I feel that education should be more about personal, spiritual, and mental growth that encourages well-roundedness in a person instead of forcing them to be a laborer in one field or another.