Summer travels and news from HomeschoolNYC

This time of year many parents and teachers panic over testing and assessments. When administrations tie salaries and promotions to a single test score, it is all too easy to panic. We are not standardized people, and true learning cannot occur when a test is the ultimate goal. Teachers and students are being asked to do the impossible! Such an obsession with testing, or with any form of assessment, will ruin any attempt at creating a great education. The learning environment will have an absence of critical thought instead of being vibrant with inquiry. The goal will be short-term memorization instead of a personal sense of discovery.

My mother used to give her entering college freshmen students, all education majors, a standard sixth grade test. Routinely, they failed. My mother's obvious point was to question not only the merit of these tests, but also the merit of the standardized sixth grade curriculum. We all had to learn it and pass those tests in sixth grade. But if we all forgot it, what was its value?

Homeschooling parents who are writing a narrative assessment worry too. Is my child at grade level? Has she fallen behind or advanced? Should I promote my child, or skip him a grade? This shows a preoccupation with standardized curriculum. Most of us were raised on such a curriculum, with subjects formatted to be dosed out in pittances, one grade's worth at a time. When true learning occurs, we function at many different levels and rates of speed. We may slow down and even move backwards, to relax and regroup our thoughts, or to remind ourselves, and then we may spurt ahead, becoming experts in a subject at a young age, or suddenly motivated to take on a greater goal than originally planned.

In my book, Education Uncensored, I suggest that children write their own assessments. In my opinion, we are the harshest judges of ourselves, and the only ones who understand the importance of our personal goals. Lynn Stoddard's wonderful book, Educating For Human Greatness, has a sample Student Self-Assessment, one created for the early grades and another for older students (Appendix B, Parts 1 and 2). Mr. Stoddard's elegant and concise book lists seven I's as the ultimate goals of education: Identity, Inquiry, Interaction, Initiative, Imagination, Intuition and Integrity. Curriculum is simply a means to these goals, and not an end to itself. I am deeply impressed with this book, which provides a simple overview and a concise plan that any school or classroom could adopt, given the freedom to do so. I highly recommend this book. It is full of practical, straightforward ideas that will empower students, teachers and parents. Mr. Stoddard's words help us to focus on the true goals, the ones worth assessing. Educating For Human Greatness is a blueprint for change.