@boomerang,
Quote:You don't learn about what he knows. You learn about what has been crammed into his short term memory without context.
This sounds to me like the real problem you have is with the teaching methods as opposed to the test- even if they're in place
because of the test.
And if that's the case, I'd have him opt out of the public school system he's in, if you truly think that all that's happening in his academic day is him sitting there having information he'll be tested on crammed down his throat for him to regurgitate and forget tomorrow.
I'm just curious to know whether or not you believe that something has got to make it into the short-term memory before it can be fully integrated, in other words 'learned' and stored in the long-term memory to be recalled and applied and manifested in a demonstrable skill-set.
And I think it's bullshit that someone who hasn't at least made inroads toward learning something can somehow look as if they have-you didn't say that - Max did when he said, 'People who are educated can look uneducated (okay --that may be true) and people who aren't educated can look educated'...that's crap.
In fourth grade if a kid doesn't have basic math skills - they're not gonna be able to pull it out of their hat for one day on a standardized test.
And I think these tests can definitely be an indication of what a child has or hasn't at least made inroads toward learning.
I took aptitude testing in fifth grade that placed my verbal ability in the 99th percentile and my mechanical ability at the 19th. And that's an accurate representation of my particular and individual skill-set- to this day.
Should my parents have said, 'Oh - she sucks at applied mechanics - don't make her take a test that's going to show her what she isn't good at, and might need to apply more effort in if she ever wants to succeed in that area...'
And with whom are these tests 'popular'? How, in any way, shape, or form could someone see taking a standardized test as a 'popular' option?
It's a fact of life for school children - like paying taxes is a fact of life for them when they become adults.
I don't know - you talk all the time about Mo being different and you not wanting him to feel different - how is this going to make him feel anything but different?
I wouldn't teach my children to rebel for the sake of rebelling. I'd teach them that if they aren't getting a good education in the place where they're at - they need to go somewhere else.
In fact, that's what I did teach them - my kids were in a private school for three years in one place we lived, because I wasn't happy with the education they'd have gotten in another school.
It sounds to me as if you're using this test as a means to protest against the school. If you're so unhappy with it, why is Mo still there?
I don't get it.