A student who doesn’t like tests?

Dale De Atley

Reading Amanda Rubenstein’s stand on standardized testing reminded me

that I once supported a movement to “improve” education by grading

academic performance as simply “pass” or “fail.”

Similarly to Amanda, I knew that students wanted to genuinely

learn and not be taught to regurgitate facts and figures. I believed

educators and the system were misguided because they wanted to put me

in a box marked A, B or C.

Since Amanda’s teachers at Corona del Mar won’t tell her, I will

-- Grow up. Competition, from standardized testing to your salary and

where you live, is the very essence of the American experience.

Teachers “teach to regurgitate” because that is what the community

and state requires of them. Teachers present the content and depth of

subject matter dedicated by the state based on what will be tested in

May. The political and economic factors dictating education standards

in California are the result of our country’s need to compete with

the entire world for new technologies and diminishing resources.

Excellent performance in any contest, decided by standards, proves

you are better at what’s being tested. If one or two teachers at

Corona del Mar High School sit at the back of the class, not

interacting with students, perhaps the standard to challenge is not

academic performance but rather union-protected tenure.

Amanda’s passion for education would be better served by the

selection of a more time-worthy senior project. I suggest she

research the significant issues and solutions associated with

educating students in our little Newport-Mesa Unified School District

representing worldwide ethnic diversities, unfathomably wide economic

diversities and tragically wide parental diversities. Oh, and don’t

forget, with a shamefully poor budget. I believe research in that

area might yield a more productive result and satisfy Amanda’s need

to think analytically.

* DALE DE ATLEY is a Costa Mesa resident.