The Paradox of Testing Students

We don’t have to look far to know our society is disconnected. There is a noticeable division. Historically, many governments have failed us; therefore, now more than ever, we must think for ourselves. Our community tomorrow will be based on the children of today. How are we raising them? Modern-day culture has outsourced our children’s education to that of public schools, which are, in fact, government agencies. Let me take a moment to let the reader know I have no ax to grind with our Country; I am a patriot at heart! However, I have many reservations about the bureaucrats running it and their education philosophy. Our children should be our priority, and how we raise them will dictate their future and the future of our society.

There is much talk about recent ideologies regarding gender transitioning but minimal talk about how we got there in the first place. Could you take a moment and deep dive into what age group is most affected by this theory and the trend that is taking place? While deep diving, look at the people behind the idea; I mean the original thought that a person can change their gender. You might find that those people, including doctors, lawyers, and intellectuals, are not the ones to follow. It wasn’t the ordinary person who led the Natzi regime but the doctors, lawyers, and intellectuals! Of course, I am not saying that all doctors, lawyers, and scholars are not to be trusted; what I am saying is they should not govern our thought process. We must take this wild ideology seriously and weigh everything before we adopt a theory and raise our children based on it. We must think for ourselves.

Our chief responsibility is to learn how to self-govern, think for ourselves, and weigh our every idea, only adopting good ideas and simply saying no to bad ideas. We must look to the past and see what has worked to build healthy societies and what has made a society collapse. It all starts with education. An uneducated person will be left to follow the leader of the time. King Charlemagne was not a perfect man, but he did lead in restoring the Western Roman Empire and knew that properly educating the people was the first step. He spent much time and money educating the people. He educated by first putting God back into the system.

Why is this important? Because it takes the final authority away from the government and gives it to God. But what if I don’t believe in your God? Read the Ten Commandments and decide if society will be better or worse for following them. And while we work at following them, we teach our children this value system. It is not about living perfectly but having a set value system to teach us virtues. This is not a post to pitch a religion but rather a reminder that America was built on Judeo-Christian values, which is why it was an anomaly to the rest of the world.

~

Now that I have gotten that off my chest, let’s talk about how we educate our children, the most essential part of our society. We are dropping them off and giving the responsibility to someone else. I do not think every child can or should be homeschooled; this is a personal choice. However, we must have our hands in every part of our children’s education.

The duty of education is not exclusive to school hours; it is a full-time job or, shall I say, duty. We must teach our children who they are and what they came to do. We take full ownership and look to the tried and true philosophy that has worked. What a call we have on our lives as parents to raise children; this a noble job and one to embrace if given the opportunity.

As we see it today, the education system is a testing system. Pass this test to get to the next grade; if you get this test score, get into this college. We are turning out educated fools with great-paying jobs, sometimes not, leaning on vices instead of virtues. Nothing is more terrifying for a parent to get to the end and realize they did not prepare their child to live in the world.

Our education system also leans far too hard on teaching for utilitarian purposes, and our children are left to follow others rather than think for themselves.

~

The average child will graduate high school, at best, secure a decent job, and perhaps move up in the pay scale but be left in the world without ever reaching a high level of thinking. They spent most of their time in school working on passing tests, maybe getting some athletic success but missing the entire point of education. Many students never pick up a book again once they graduate. Today’s testing method only confirms if a child can fire off facts. Usually, facts are memorized for testing purposes only but do not shape or change the person. The paradox of testing is we think our children are learning and filled with knowledge, but the reality is that once the test is taken, the information is gone! In this case, testing means nothing when a person finds themselves filled with material success and empty everywhere else. This leads to all sorts of erroneous acts, and most are hidden behind outward success as we see it today.

~

Education is no more than applied philosophy, our effort to train children according to the wisdom that is in us; and not according to the last novelty in education ideas. – Charlotte Mason

This quote from Charlotte Mason best defines education. Once we can define it, we can determine what will be fitting for our children. Behind every curriculum is a philosophy. Our modern-day culture teaches our children based on the latest novelty; there is no wisdom in picking up the newest fad.

Charlotte Mason’s philosophy is complete; she covers every aspect of raising and educating children; they are connected. It has also been successful for over a century. She used the wisdom of the great philosophers that came before her.

~

The hallmark of a Charlotte Mason Philosophy is providing students with quality literature, a feast of subjects, and using narrations as a base of testing. There is no “busy” work. Children learn from the best only, meaning they are connected to the original author with the original idea.

Ideas are not watered down to a “Child” level or given by a second or third party via a textbook. She believed children are born persons born with the natural desire to learn, with curiosity woven into their being. They can consume and digest the material themselves.

A committee writes textbooks and gives them to a child; it’s like feeding a child chewed food. Much like a child is capable of chewing his food, he is capable of consuming literature from great thinkers, not watered-down material. Charlotte Mason believed quality literature from the original authors is for all children from all classes, not a select person or school. Why are private schools operating much differently than public schools? Do textbooks cost more than the book written by the original author? Or are we cherry-picking what is suitable for a public school child?

Charlotte Mason believed children should only read living books written by the original author of the idea and that they hang their facts on relationships they have built with the person or place. Merely memorizing definitions produces no such personal reaction. This living book must be of good quality, about real people who have come before us, stories that show the outcome of their choices. By and by, this point is missed; virtue and character are built during adolescence, and this can only be done through education. She also believed we could quantify their knowledge by asking what happened in the story they read. This helps the mind start thinking at a young age. A different part of the brain is used when asked such a question, the one that develops synthetic thinking.

This type of “testing” is called narration, a form of testing that began in ancient times before a factory of schools taught children what to think. Narrating comes naturally to us; when you get home, what is the first thing you do? You tell what happened in your day; you can only narrate what you know, what you find important. Each person is shaped based on what he needs to grow as a human; if he does not find it important, perhaps he didn’t need it at the time. The irony is that children have a natural desire to learn and a natural curiosity; it is woven into their being. We snuff it out when we try to systematically teach a child and expect them to have the same outcomes.

~

The Principle of Narration requires the child to narrate its contents after a single reading. A single reading is key! If we allow a child to read more than once, he will develop the habit of waiting to absorb the information. Narration should be done only from high-quality books, not twaddle.

When children are given years of opportunities to narrate, they develop a deep understanding that most educational methods can not provide them. When we use conventional testing, we have already done the thinking for the child; many times, we even offer multiple answers to select from.

Conventional testing usually aims to determine what a child does not know, and it often feels like a “gotcha” moment for a child. When we “test” using the narration method, we are determining what a child does know, which is far more important.

If a child does not know the material, they don’t know it! They may be ready to learn it later. We can’t determine a Child’s ability with a one-size-fits-all approach. This also puts far too much pressure on a teacher. The child’s responsibility is to learn, and the teachers are to give them only quality literature with the chief idea and get out of the way. Over one hundred years ago, Ms. Mason found the only way to teach was to begin by preparing children to learn how to think for themselves and determine what ideas to accept and reject. This philosophy is just as important today as it was then.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash