To the Four Winds...

Life has (yet again) accelerated around our household. For the first time in thirteen years, each of our kids is in school. Scooter occupies the Alpha position in middle school as an eighth-grader, the queen of all she surveys. Peasant sixth graders cower in her presence. Skeeter is in the same position as a fifth grader in elementary school, at the pinnacle of the heap. At the other end of the food chain is Squealer, a small kindergartener who is still adjusting to this new (and exhilarating) world outside our household.

Having three kids at three different schools has stretched our meager planning and scheduling skills to the breaking point. Mornings begin early and race by. Scooter heads to the front yard at 6:59 am for her 7:00 bus stop. (Yes, I’m mostly over my first impression from a couple of years ago). After much prayer and anguish, we decided to let Squealer ride the bus. This concerned us, because with his diminutive size (and his giftedness in bothering people) we were concerned about him being tossed out one of the bus windows. But after an extended phone conversation with the bus driver (and the reality of his school being some distance from our home) we decided to give it a shot. He too must be at a bus stop for a 7:00 am pick up, about a mile from our house. Skeeter leaves the house at 7:30 via bike. Her school is .9 miles from our home and you must be 1 mile away to ride the bus. So despite the fact that she must cross a pretty major thoroughfare, we decided to take the plunge and let her ride. She loves the responsibility and freedom that a bike gives her.

So every morning, our three kids are scattered to the four winds. A bike, two buses and a multitude of prayers fan out across our community every morning. And we are reminded again that they are in His hands.

Exactly where they've been all along.

High Stakes Testing

This is the week. Both Scooter and Skeeter are taking their high stakes tests this week. These are the results of the No Child Left Behind acts that categorize various state schools according to their kids scores on these exams. It is an emotionally draining week for kids, teachers, and administrators a like.

The schools hold rallies, play games in preparation, and write encouraging cards to one another as they psych up for these exams. Apparently to mixed results. They then use these exams as bench-marks for evaluating students, teachers, and the schools themselves.

Skeeter (3rd grade) brought home a card that read “You’ll do really well on the exam!” over a construction-paper flower. I asked her who gave it to her and she shrugged and replied “I dunno, some second grader.”

So at her school the second graders make encouraging cards for the third graders. Thus they spread the anxiety level for students across two years instead of one. By the time the exams roll around (this morning) the kids are bundles of stress, nervously anxious about the exams.

We have several teachers in our Sunday School class at our home church. They tell frustrating tales of aggravation in having to “teach to the test” in terms of both materials and testing methods. The entire year is geared toward a one week period in March. So teachers tell me that very little gets accomplished after the exams.

I like accountability and think it is important to evaluate teaching. (In fact, I am an advocate for post-tenure review on the university level). But we have developed a system where the principals are under pressure from the state (via federal school rankings), the teachers are under pressure from the principals (via teaching evaluation) and the students are at the bottom end of the pyramid, bearing the weight of the entire system.

I’m not sure we could’ve developed a more dysfunctional system of educational accountability if we had intentionally set out to do so.