What a relief to see this past week in the rear-view mirror! For those of you removed from school-aged children, the last few days were filled with Texas’ brand of standardized testing — TAKS — Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, which is the current form designed to assess students’ attainment of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies skills required under Texas education standards.
As a mom who has spent the better part of a decade entrenched in the testing cycle, I’m not a fan. For the record, I fully understand the genesis of the whole mess and that it comes down from places far removed from our local educators.
There’s an extensive list of what gets me riled over it, but what had my pollen-dusted nose out of joint enough to cause me to write about it is this: The timing of the late spring tests couldn’t be worse.
I get that the bulk of the school year is needed to teach the concepts students need in order to be successful, but geez . . . I can’t focus this time of year, and I (supposedly) have maturity on my side.
The sun is shining until very close to bedtime, birds are singing, the sweet fragrance of spring fills the air and it seems most folks just want to be outside doing something, anything, other than what falls under the scope of formal education.
Shoot, I’m writing this surrounded by the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle while sitting on the bank of Cedar Bayou (there are more beautiful bodies of water, but it’s a short walk from where I hang my hat) listening to the buzz of bees, watching the soft ripple of the water and the slight sway of the trees with a light breeze ruffling loose strands of my hair. Near perfection for a mind that needs to wander.
Memories of household chores try their best to interrupt these serene moments. I’m giving serious consideration to dragging the clothes down here and getting the laundry done the old-timey way. That’s as good an excuse as any I can think of to spend the day outdoors. I wonder if the family would mind their clothes smelling of eau de swampe instead of April fresh.
But getting back to testing, of course I put all the important dates on my calendar and made sure the youths in my charge were at least in their beds a little earlier than usual (making them fall asleep before they’re ready is a another issue entirely) and honed my skills as a short-order cook during the breakfast hour.
These have become the only days I insist on breakfast consisting of something a few notches up from Pop-tarts on the nutritional scale. (I succumbed to the breakfast war a couple of years ago. Call it bad parenting if you’d like. For all intents and purposes, I have three teenagers – trust me when I say I have far bigger eggs to fry.)
Hats off to all the students, teachers, and parents who made it through! Let’s all wave goodbye to that rear-view image and set our sights back through the windshield.
© 2010 Natalie Whatley
Tags: standardized testing, TAKS
May 11th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
I fully understand the need for testing, but TAKS is killing this state. Let’s give back the quality and let the teachers teach.