I have grown to really dislike benchmark testing. At its root purpose, it just seems wrong. Believe me, I know all of the reasons why it is in vogue. I have “lived it” both as a parent and teacher, and grow more uncomfortable with the process with each passing day. It feels anti-Christ. We are labeling kids, and that is wrong. God has a purpose for all of us, and we mustn’t allow our kids to receive a message that they are “less.” They are, in fact, the creation of a master craftsman. And that means they are “more” than any test can measure.
As our children take these gag-worthy benchmarks in Kingsport, I want you to hear me on this, teachers and parents and admin. God made our children. They are fearfully and wonderfully made. They were knit together with His hands. So, whatever score they get, your child is more than that number. We cannot measure God’s handiwork anymore than we can measure God himself. I am sorry our children have to experience this.
I stumbled across the movie Gifted during this past year. I am not sure how this movie escaped me the first time around. Along with CODA(subject of a future post), these are my new, favorite movies about innovators in education. <<<spoilers ahead>>>
Mary is gifted, a genius in fact. Her mom was a world class mathematician. Her Uncle Frank has been raising her. Roberta Taylor, played by the ever brilliant Octavia Spencer, has reservations about sending Mary to public schools. Why? In real life, our schools struggle to handle children if they don’t fit into cookie-cutter molds. We see children as human capital instead of uniquely talented human beings. No test can quantify that goodness. Frank wants Mary to have friends and to learn the value of being around other children. Frank knew that there were important things about “school” that couldn’t be measured. Mary would be taken from Frank, because others were afraid her mind would be wasted.
Your kids are gifted by God with a unique purpose in this life. No benchmark is going to fully know who your children are. They can’t predict their future. In 2 Samuel 24, David counts God’s people as a way to show his own power instead of depending on God’s power. A pestilence strikes the land. It was halted at Araunah’s threshing floor. David would build an altar there, and it was there that God’s temple would be built. Threshing is a way of sifting wheat. It is a fitting symbolic place.
I used to enjoy benchmark assessments. They were laid back, and didn’t take so much time to administer. Now, they have blossomed into a monstrosity which gobbles up instructional time. It is kind of like a joke which has been taken too far – it was funny once, and now it’s lost its purpose. I do believe that God is sifting those educators (who are wise enough to know that constantly trying to quantify student learning is both impossible and a journey into emptiness) from those who foolishly embrace this practice.
I will close with this. What do we value in our education system? Do we value how well students can take an assessment? Or do we value if they can think for themselves? Do we value creating learning environments which can help them think, to discover who they are and who they are meant to be? Or do we value the ability to take a standardized test?
I do think it is important to check to see if our teaching is collectively effective, but just maybe at 5% of what we have now. If it were up to me, at the most I would give non-punitive assessments at the end of 5th, 8th, and 12th grades – and only one time during those years. The rest of the time? We would simply learn, and enjoy discovering this great big world that God has gifted us.
Near the end of Gifted, Mary wants to know how excited people were when she was born. Frank takes her to a delivery room at the hospital to see the joy that families experience when children are born. It was experiential teaching. Mary was filled with overwhelming joy in seeing the reaction of total strangers celebrating the life of a new baby. Mission accomplished. No common or standardized assessment needed.
What do we value? Do we value rich experiences which cannot be quantified, or do we value lesser benchmark driven instruction which puts labels and glass ceilings on children?
Ironically, Evelyn Adler, the antagonist in the movie, leaves us with this pearl of wisdom…
“Never get on the bad side of small-minded people who have a little authority.”
Amen to that.
Our children were made in the image of an infinite being who loves us infinitely. His greatest creation, mankind, is full of strands of DNA, emotion, and creative brilliance. They were never meant to be benchmarked this frequently or maybe even – ever. If believe that we are made God’s image, then who we are…the good that we are capable of…our purpose in His plan…cannot be measured by human hands.
