Frustration thy name is standardized testing...

I have decided that the bane of my existence is standardized testing in schools. It boggles my mind when I think about how little authentic teaching and learning occurs because of this scourge. I am not arguing accountability. I think all teachers should be held accountable for doing their jobs. I just think that this ridiculous system of testing creates teaching to the test that is rampant and infectious. As a teacher, this makes me cringe and want to abandon the field all together. As a parent, it enrages me to the point of putting my children in private schools. You see, I actually want my children to learn. I don't want them to know who Susan B. Anthony was to answer a question on a test about suffrage. I want them to know Susan B. Anthony because she had courage to pave the way for changes in our government that needed to occur due to societal changes and the courage to speak out for those who were hungry for a voice. I don't want them to think Rosa Parks was some helpless old woman on a bus. I want them to know that she was a part of a movement to stand up for what she believed in and that she was not a pawn. She was a willing, risk-taking individual. I want them to read authentic literature that moves them and that instills a love of reading and writing. I want them to read with passion and not with strategies. I want them to work on math that they will use is the real world, not calculations in isolation that do not allow them to think critically and problem-solve. You see my friends, we are giving rise to generations of folks who can ace a test but live in ignorance. That's the truth and it is a shame.