To Test or Not to Test

Why is that this time of year all you homeschool moms feel the need to test your children? I don‘t care what the experts say or what the institutes of learning do…I‘m just not sure they measure anything…except how well kids take tests.

I took tests as a kid and I got mostly A’s, but I learned very little. That’s because tests have little to do with learning. They were put in place because the number of students was too large for a single teacher to monitor their progress so they invented the test.

You already know how your kids are doing. Why do you need to test them, unless it’s just to make YOU feel better? If your child gets an A, you feel good. If they get a D, you feel bad. But that has little to do with what they know…because you already know what they know.

So for what it’s worth from this educationally-challenged rebel…leave the testing to those who don’t know how all the kids are doing (like those institutions), and instead enjoy your position of knowing just how your children are doing.

Note to Dad – Dad, can we talk for a minute? Your job is to encourage your wife in the homeschooling job she is doing. When you say things like, “Do you think we ought to have the kids tested?” your wife hears, “Honey, you’re obviously doing a terrible job of educating our children. We need to find out if they’re as stupid as I think they are.”

That’s not encouraging. So don’t do it.

Not testing should make everyone smile!