Oh Sunday morning, how I love you. I love the quiet. The cinnamon swirl coffee with hazelnut creamer. The warm seat in our recliner with a my favorite throw wrapped around my shoulders. The TV on and laptop open.
Yes, this is my kind of Sunday morning.
Most of the time I check online news, catch up with old friends on Facebook and do a little searching on topics that peaked my interest during the week.
Today I explored some work done by a professor at Kansas State University named Michael Wesch. If you click that link, you’ll find Wesch has been called “the explainer” by Wired magazine, and is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture.
Yes, this kind of thing interests me.
Yes, I know I’m weird.
Anyway, where am I going with this?
Oh yeah, hang tight. I’m almost there.
While visiting Wesch’s YouTube channel I found a video titled “a few ideas” (Visions of Students Today). The video stems from an assignment where Wesch asks his students to carry video cameras and create YouTube videos. Wesch’s goal is to see the world as his students see it.
One of the topics mentioned in the middle of the video really hit home with me.
Standardized testing.
They’ve been a huge hurdle for me for as long as I can remember.
In high school, I dreaded getting results from SAT’s. Mostly because I knew my scores would be lower than everyone else, even though I carried a 4.0.
College only made things worse. Not only did standardized testing make me feel like crud, they affected my pocketbook. I’ll never forget the day I was told the full scholarship – promised to me by graduate school – had been taken away and given to another student, because of my low scores on the ACT.
For the record, I carried between a 3.8 and 4.0 and worked a part-time job, throughout my master’s degree. I was the only person in my class to carry a part-time job.
Looking back, it didn’t really kill me or anything. I know I’m blessed. I know I’m one of the very few in this world that has never had to worry about a roof over my head or where my next meal might come from.
Again, I’m blessed. Get over it, right?
On the other hand, I wonder if I wouldn’t have pursued other things, like my childhood dream to be a small animal vet, if standardized testing wasn’t such a hurdle for me.
Just curious, what is your opinion on standardized testing?
For the Moms reading, how do you get your children through standardized tests at school? Do you think they are a good measuring stick for your child?
*note: I’m not too familiar with Wesch’s projects. I just thought his work sounded interesting and found a few things online. If I misrepresented this or any other project, I hope you take my mention for what it really is- a compliment on the work done by Wesch and his students.
You are never too old to become a Vet. I am doing it.
I hate Standardized Test I do not feel it shows what a student can or cannot do.
Miss you lots and I can’t wait to get out West so I can hang with my long lost sister from another mister. <3 you lots and lots
Well, if it isn’t Dr. J, my future vet
Thanks for the kind words my dear. I don’t know if my pocketbook could handle anymore school. Eeekkkk!!! Just seeing you say out west gets me sooooooo excited! I hope Stillwater can handle us 
I hated those things in high school so much that after a while. I just start dotting down the line to get through them. I think your actually grade reflect more what a child/person can do then those test do. Not to mention. I am not good when it comes to exams. I can handle when one of my brothers are choking and going in after whatever it is. I can handle climbing into a paster with a baby brother to only find the killer bull had been put in the wrong field and I must block the Bull’s view of said little brother so he can go for help. But set 1 of those dam exams in front of me and I am heading for the john!!! I know. Not pretty at all.
It is like everything rides on those exams. If they do, why do they insist people work so hard all those years for A’s only to have all that work wipe out with 1 exam? Jodi & others like her busted her bum for that scholarship. She earned it. Let me rephrase that. She had already EARNED that scholarship. To have that yanked away from someone based on 1 test should be illegal in my opinion. Your record for all those years should stand for something.
Hello and thanks for sharing your thoughts! Amen about heading to the john, oooohhhh the stomach aches!!!
Thanks again!
Thanks for this post, I thought I might be the only one out there that didn’t accomplish a few small goals because of a darn standardized test.
You are certainly not alone. That is one thing I like about the video. I could hear others struggling with the same thing. Thanks for visiting!