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.
