Michele Moss

> From: Mary E Gates <megates@...>
>
> Testing, IMO, is one of the major weaknesses of ps. A member of our
> school board said ~Yes, we teach to the test, but experts have
> figured out what kids need to know and that is what's on the test~
> I DO NOT believe that tests accurately measure what a person knows.

Mary,
Very recently a couple posts showed up on the "parents of
spirited kids" discussion list regarding testing. It seems to me
that spirited, active alert, and gifted children have a tendancy to
have a different learning style, awareness of the world around them,
and view things with a different perspective than most. what
concerns me is who is determining the right/wrong answer for tests
that are developed for very young children (pre-school age), what
exactly is being done with the results of these tests in terms of
what they are teaching the children? in my opinion they must plan on
teaching the children to have a very narrow way of thinking and
discourage any creative, extended, analytical thinking!
an example of a test question would be... "Birds fly and fish _____".
the expected answer is "fish swim". A child answering "fish don't"
would be penalized with the wrong answer. h-m-m-m-m-m. is this a
true measure of what a person/child really knows? why is the answer
"fish don't" not the "right" answer too! it seems to me that this
would only serve to stifle a child's learning and comprehension of
the world around them into not looking at things from all
perspectives! this was a test question given to a four year old. As
i mentioned in my reply there, they wouldn't have gotten off that
easy had it been Sterling. He would have gone on to justify that
some birds don't fly and some swim and provided them with examples.
i'm getting a little off track here but my point is that it seems to
me that the public schools are working awfully hard to teach kids how
to be dumber with these tests that are supposedly developed by
"experts" and that anyone here who has doubts about their choice to
unschool their kids should rejoice!!

> Besides, as someone pointed out in something I read, we DO NOT know
> what our children will need to know in 20 or 30 years! I think
> reading is important, but will everyone really need to be literate
> in 2040? Maybe computers will be so prevalent and so different from
> what we can imagine that people will only need to know how to push
> buttons?
>
now this is a very good point. think about where computers were
20-30 years ago and where they are now. when you compare DOS to
Windows, one would have to agree that they already are moving toward
people only needing to know how to push buttons and some already are
pretty good with voice recognition and a person doesn't even have to
know the right button to push!! Voice recognition computers in the
present are more often used for people with disabilities and are not
usually within the budget of the average household that owns a
computer. but i don't think it will be that far in the future where
these will become the normal household computer. this means our kids
won't even have to know how to type or compose a sentence correctly
because the computer will do it for us. and yes, who else knows what
will be commonplace in 2040!
>
> Mary Ellen
> Be absolutely determined to enjoy what you do.
>

Michele Moss
Mom of Sterling Tyler age 3 yrs old
Parents of Spirited Kids Resource Web site:
http://www.icstech.net/~michele
Parents of Spirited Kids Discussion Group:
http://www.egroups.com/list/psk

Mary E Gates

Let me start by saying that I have doubts too and struggle with how to
present what we do to others. When I tell "others" of what we do in a
schoolish way, they are usually impressed. What I don't tell is how we
spend most of our time, because it would seem like we are doing "nothing"
compared to what kids in school appear to be doing all day.

Testing, IMO, is one of the major weaknesses of ps. A member of our
school board said ~Yes, we teach to the test, but experts have figured
out what kids need to know and that is what's on the test~ I DO NOT
believe that tests accurately measure what a person knows. I've always
been good at taking tests and scored well in college classes but remember
so little of what I tested well at. Used to study with a friend who
obviously knew the material better than I, yet I got better grades
because she freaked out at test time. Don't know if tests are useful for
anything. Is a Doctor who scores well on the medical boards a better Dr.
than one who barely passes? I don't have the answer to how we can trust
that an expert we pay money to see is truly knowledgeable.

Besides, as someone pointed out in something I read, we DO NOT know what
our children will need to know in 20 or 30 years! I think reading is
important, but will everyone really need to be literate in 2040? Maybe
computers will be so prevalent and so different from what we can imagine
that people will only need to know how to push buttons?


Mary Ellen
Be absolutely determined to enjoy what you do.

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