Teaching the Test

Day 3, More Than a Number

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. Proverbs 17:3 (ESV)

They were scared to mark any answers. It was a pretest assessing the knowledge they recalled from third grade and five of my twenty-five students were moving toward panic attacks. They sat through the whole forty-five minutes and never marked an answer.

I sent the rest of the class to recess with another class and kept those five students with me so we could talk. “Who were your teachers last year?” Quickly they shared. Three came from one class and two from another.

“Why didn’t you guys choose any answers? It isn’t a grade. This is just a pretest that shows me what skills you remember and which ones need more practice.”

None of them spoke. They looked afraid.

I let the silence linger and finally one of the boys spoke up. “What if I get it wrong?” the other kids nodded.

“If you get it wrong, it shows me that I need to reteach you that skill. It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about what I need to do as a teacher to help you.”

These kids stared at me. Blankly.

“Why are you so afraid of marking the wrong answer?”

“Because we don’t want to be in trouble.”

“Or yelled at.”

“Or be inside for P.E.”

It all clicked in my brain. Whatever happened in their previous classes, fear of imperfection now held them hostage. We talked a little bit more and I acknowledged their fears. I also told them I would not yell or punish them, especially if I knew they were giving me their best. Then I sent them to recess and told them we’d try the test later.

Sadly, this scenario is not uncommon in our classrooms today. Teachers are considered “highly effective” when they produce high test scores or drastic gains. Gone are the days when tests are used to place kids by ability or compare them to other students nationwide. The test is what matters.

I’m the kind of teacher who likes to teach kids how to think. If we teach our students how to think, there should be no test that they could not take and outperform the rest of the comparable population. It’s like the old adage, If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

Our season of Covid drove this reality home. Blindly we followed the mandates, took the vaccinations, and social distanced. No funerals, weddings, worship, or reunions. Fear reigned supremely and the small percentage who questioned everything was silenced or persecuted. No matter where we stand on the vaccines and social mandates, that is neither here nor there; my point is that we followed blindly as a nation. And I think this is due to so many human beings not knowing how to think for themselves. We are a generation that blindly follows or has learned to be tolerant instead of thinking, questioning, and asking for ourselves.

Back to my year of teaching, I vowed to help my students learn that life wasn’t about right and wrong choices; just choices with different consequences or rewards. On decisions of morality, we learned right and wrong, but answers in the classroom, I had to teach these students they were not defined by their answer choices. They each had a unique personality that could never be measured by a test. As teachers, we must be aware of this differentiation and teach our students to think, not how to take a test.

Do the Heart Work

1.      In what ways can we teach our students how to think for themselves but also prepare them for required tests?

2.      How can we help students differentiate between not knowing something and labeling themselves as a failure?

3.      Does God teach to the test or allow trials to teach us? Explain.

Digging Deeper

1.      Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10 (ESV)

2.      Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 (ESV)

3.      So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7 (ESV)

4.      Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

It’s interesting to me that scripture does not tell us to study the test to know the answers. We are to examine ourselves. Test the world around us. Learn from the trials. It’s not performance based and there is no set formula for success or failure.

If You Get Spare Time

              Often, I’ve been frustrated with God because there is no manual or set of instructions to follow in the events of life. There is, however, the Bible, which tells us how to live and where to place our faith. It’s a guide that teaches us to seek after God with all our hearts; not format our life to a set of measurable standards that can be mastered through a standardized test.

              Not only do we need to teach our students how to think, but we need to practice thinking for ourselves, using the scripture as a guide. If we blindly follow the people and ways of this world, what happens to our souls?