the victim of the system

My friends and I were just talking about elementary school and the different "classes" we were in.

In my elementary school kids that didn't read well or needed extra help went to Speech for like an hour or so and then the "Smart" kids went to ALP for Math & English.

I was super bad at my times tables in 3rd grade and I remember being the last kid to test out of the 1st level of times tables (my rocket was all alone at the bottom of the wall #foreverscarred)

After that my mom had me do extra math tutoring to perfect those and I was on FIRE. Math became my jam after that. In 5th grade I got to try and test into ALP, I didn't get in because my English test score wasn't high enough. (eyeroll)

MIND YOU! All those kids that were in ALP got to learn jr high level Math and therefore went into Honors Math in jr high, which lead to Honors in High School and eventually AP classes which all the good colleges, LOVE.

My too low English score changed a lot about my future education! And that English score wasn't determined by listening to me read and explaining what I learned from what I read, but from a multiple choice, standard test!

I have and always will SUCK at Reading/English tests. I can read and process but those stupid:
    "Read the parragraph & then answer tricky, confusing multiple choice questions, in a silent room while I time you" Tests

not my thing.

I was one of those kids on the cusp of everything! I loved learning but I was never quite good enough to be called "gifted" or "smart".


There are things we can do to change that. I don't think there is anything wrong with splitting up the students but I think that a lot of care should go into how it is done! Students should be put into classes by knowledge and by the way that they prefer to learn.  It should be determined through interviews and interactions not tests. Visual learners have a class where they use the blocks to watch what multiplication means, and so on and so forth.

I say we trash aalllll those stupid standardized "judge your knowledge by a number" tests!!