Trailblazer

Blaming blitz: academic expectations

Friday, March 06, 2009 By Doris Matheu

Prosecutor: Terry Teacher Students everywhere have learned by now to expect, with the end of the semester, an onslaught of CST exams (California Standardized Tests) which is given to allow for a rough measure of what students have learned from their fellow teachers. In truth, the only thing worth looking forward to during this period is getting out earlier for about three full hours to allow for the student to recoup in preparation for the next days batch of test-taking. Syke. Here lies the problem. Students simply do not take these tests seriously enough to actively perform their greatest. Some just do not know the material and have learned from previous years experience that they are not directly affected by their own outrageously low scores. Of course, excuses have been made for us in the past, some saying that it is the teachers fault for not giving adequate instruction, or that the test taking process is not even a broad enough overview to fully capture the scope of a students intelligence. These claims have truth to a certain degree, but not enough to effectively handicap our overall performance. After all, the point of the entire CST thing is to determine what we have gained from an entire years worth of formal education. I am therefore of the opinion that it is mostly our fault that our score is a measly one out of ten. We have the full capacity to learn to our hearts content. The thing is that we don't want to. Most of us are lazy and are content with copying and cheating our way into getting a better grade. We simply don't want to pay attention or take on the responsibility to get ahead. That is why when the day to take the test finally rolls around, we can finish the exam in an admirable three minutes simply by filling in all of the C's. Or we won't even bother to come in and tell our friends that we don't need some stupid test to tell us how smart we are. Because it truly won't matter in the long run to anyone; not to our individual growth as a person, not to our schools sullied reputation, and definitely not to our lame teachers who are passionately passing off their knowledge, indifferent to the idea that their paychecks, their jobs, their futures, could be hanging in the balance. That reality is not incentive enough to just show up and try our hardest.