As I type, Josie is taking her third grade New York State English Language Arts test. She’s been a little stressed. But not as stressed as the kid whose mom cancelled a playdate with us on Saturday because he was puking and crying, dreading the test. The family stayed home all weekend and did test prep and had ice cream instead of coming over.
This whole business just makes me so sad.
This is just horrifying. What the hell are we teaching kids about learning and intellectual curiosity when we teach them that a test is worth staying home and puking over?
We got a letter with prepatory exercises. A month ago. So that we could use our time wisely.
Listen up, people, teaching to the test is not actually teaching the kids anything other than test-taking skills. Really? A whole lesson on filling in the damn bubbles with a No. 2 pencil???