My poor kids. They are STRESSED. When we moved to Charlotte, I heard the kids had to take EOGs--End Of Grade tests. Apparently, if you fail any portion of these tests, you get held back in school.
I have taken both my middle schoolers, Thing One and Thing Two, to the doctor lately, for stomach-related problems. They're both on Prevacid, and the pediatrician flat out told me she sees a lot of kids with this ailment every year, around EOG time. One child had anxiety so bad, he had to be hospitalized. HOSPITALIZED.
Here's the deal: The teachers STRESS THE KIDS OUT, by scaring them over the EOGs!! And since we moved here from Wisconsin, and my kids tend to believe what they're told (that the EOGs are very hard to pass) they are having health problems and dealing with extreme anxiety.
I have a very BIG problem with this. I had to email two of Thing One's teachers a couple weeks ago, and ask them if they were confident she would pass, because she was not sleeping at night and needed reassurance. Thing One has been on the honor roll all year, yet she's stressed to the gills about the testing. They start today, and she didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Which is NOT good.
But I also understand the schools want their kids to test well on the EOGs, so they review review review, unfortunately the kids get saturated with information to the point where they begin to doubt their abilities.
Yeah, I have a big problem with this. And I'm not alone. Other parents I have spoken with feel the same way. I guess if my kids weren't new to this and had done it before, they wouldn't be so nervous, but they are and they ARE.
Thank heaven the tests are only three days.
I have taken both my middle schoolers, Thing One and Thing Two, to the doctor lately, for stomach-related problems. They're both on Prevacid, and the pediatrician flat out told me she sees a lot of kids with this ailment every year, around EOG time. One child had anxiety so bad, he had to be hospitalized. HOSPITALIZED.
Here's the deal: The teachers STRESS THE KIDS OUT, by scaring them over the EOGs!! And since we moved here from Wisconsin, and my kids tend to believe what they're told (that the EOGs are very hard to pass) they are having health problems and dealing with extreme anxiety.
I have a very BIG problem with this. I had to email two of Thing One's teachers a couple weeks ago, and ask them if they were confident she would pass, because she was not sleeping at night and needed reassurance. Thing One has been on the honor roll all year, yet she's stressed to the gills about the testing. They start today, and she didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Which is NOT good.
But I also understand the schools want their kids to test well on the EOGs, so they review review review, unfortunately the kids get saturated with information to the point where they begin to doubt their abilities.
Yeah, I have a big problem with this. And I'm not alone. Other parents I have spoken with feel the same way. I guess if my kids weren't new to this and had done it before, they wouldn't be so nervous, but they are and they ARE.
Thank heaven the tests are only three days.
3 comments:
One of the things I emphasize when I'm brought into schools to talk to kids -- which gives administration fits -- is that tests have nothing to do with knowledge. You learn things because it helps you in life; and you also learn how to take tests. Once you learn how to take those assaholic tests (pardon my language, but that's all they are) -- cakewalk.
I always got top test scores, and even tested my way out of freshman year of college, not because I was a genius, but because I figured out the key to taking tests and giving them the answers they wanted to hear. Which has nothing to do with knowledge.
Remember, I'm the one who took on the school board in grammar school about those idiotic math problems of two trains running at different speeds on the same track. My response was, if the people in the signal booths were doing their jobs properly (I was too young to know the word "competent"), the trains would never "meet" AKA CRASH -- and none of those people would be hurt or killed. I refused to answer the question on conscientious objector grounds. I won.
Yes, I was a pain in the ass even then!
I agree. THESE TEST SUCK and cause so much stress. I think much of the problem stems from the teachers stressing out too. If the kids don't do well, it reflects on them.
Seventh grade also has the technology test and if the student fails, they do have to take technology again. It depends on the teacher and if the student connected with the circiculum.
Kids do get to take the test again if they score a two on any of them. (Trust me on that one).
My kids got stressed out in 3rd grade but not after that. Once they get familiar with the tests, they won't sweat it as much.
Good luck!
This is like what we have here in Texas - they call it TAKS here. All they do all year long is prepare these kids for these major tests. It's a way for the school to get more funding if they are a "Blue Ribbon School". It's also part of the "no child left behind" and it's all BS. They stress the kids out about it.
What happened to just LEARNING? What happened to taking tests because it's a review of what was learned over the 6 weeks? I hate these standardized tests so much. I wish they'd do away with them.
I'm sure your kids will do just fine. The best thing you can do as a parent is not make a big deal about it. Just tell them they will do great, pump them up, and let them know what whatever grade they make, they will be just fine. That's my advice ;)
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