Standardize this.

Anxiety is a big part of Testing Season.
As I've said before, I tell the kids all I want is for them to do the best they can with what they have, my all-purpose paraphrase about People of Character from To Kill a Mockingbird.
I am not allowed to look at the tests. We all have to watch a video on test security and sign a paper that says if we divulge any information about the tests to anyone or discuss the tests with our colleagues we forfeit our jobs, relationships,worldly goods, and are also subject to frontal lobotomies.
No, just kidding on that last one. I think.
I want kids to do their best because they are judged by their tests. So are the schools. I do not have any power over this. I follow all of my scripted directions, perform due diligence with test security, and am happy when it is all over.
I take a lot of showers during Testing Season. I just don't feel right about it all.
Anyway, I cheer myself up by doing Celebration of the Human Spirit stuff with the kids.
Like reading good books.
Mozart never had to take a standardized test.
I don't think Ray Bradbury had to take any standardized tests, but I am not sure. I have not asked him.
This year we are going to look at Chagall paintings during Testing Season.
I think it is hard to look at a Chagall painting and not feel a sense of happiness and renewal.
And I remind the kids that they are not labels.
They are human beings with intrinsic dignity.
You can't standardize the human spirit.