Judging Children is Flawed

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

It’s Hard to Judge a Genius

Fact: We are all geniuses. 

Reason: We are all excellent (perfect, even) at being ourselves. 

You can’t outperform me at being me and I’ll never come close to your ability to be you. 

So, why do we allow our children to be judged constantly during their academic careers for not meeting standards that have no consideration for the individual child?

We want them to go to school and learn something every day, to make connections, to develop critical thinking skills, to be exposed to other people’s perspectives, to increase their options in life, and to become a valuable member of society. But how do you measure whether this is happening or not?

Schools attempt to measure students that are all different with one system of measurement. Testing doesn’t measure the real skills that we need to be future contributing adults like effort, intelligence, progress, discipline, and motivation. 

Standardized tests are more a measure of memory recall.

Report cards focus on meeting standards related to skills that it has been decided your child should know in a particular grade.

Being Labelled Stupid

When children are constantly being judged and measured, their feelings of self-esteem and worthiness are tied to the results. After a while, the effects of scoring badly on tests and getting bad grades create an unmotivated student who hates learning and doesn’t see their purpose in the world.

Schools shouldn’t mimic factories turning out duplicate products. Children are unique and on a path to fulfill their own purpose in life that won’t work with a cookie-cutter methodology.

Children are being judged based on criteria given by individuals that do not see their potential, uniqueness, or effort. Just like judging a fish because it can’t climb a tree, children are judged for their ability or inability to meet expectations set by faceless academics.

It’s not that all tests are bad or all measurement of children’s performance is wrong, but why do we spend so much time making them do so much of it?

“Students in urban school districts sat for tests more than 6,570 times (in one school year)”. 

Student Testing Report, Rav Hart

Efforts to improve American education relied on making standardized testing mandatory. But the promises made by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have not been delivered.

COVID Wipes Out the Test

“Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this difficult time.”

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

COVID-19 gave us a testing reprieve. You could probably hear the whoops and hollers of educators. Not to mention the sighs of relief from students eight to eighteen across the country.

We spend too much valuable classroom time teaching to a test that has been described as pointless. There are better ways to improve education, measure students, rank schools, and evaluate teachers. 

“The only difference between a flower and a weed is judgment.”

Measuring children with tests and grades is dangerous.  The result is that they feel stressed, overwhelmed, worthless, or dumb. Let’s move away from judging children and improve the way we help them on the path to their purpose in life. They’re a genius at being themselves, we can help them see that.