Kangatopia

Due to the lovely weather of the last couple of days, I am for what feels like the first time enjoying spending time downstairs at the computer without wondering when frost bite is going to set in.  However, there is no time to write tonight as I have just spent a little time whipping up low fat, low cholesterol, high fiber, high in antioxidents blueberry muffin batter for Bear in the morning.  I’ll bake them for breakfast and so it is early to bed, early to rise for the Mama Bear.

Bear takes his first state mandated standardized test in the morning.  If he fails, he apparently flunks third grade.  Or, at least, this is what he has been told and I’m fairly certain I’ve heard this too.  He’s stressed out, keyed up and all for going to bed early tonight to get a good night’s sleep.  He voluntarily chose to go to bed at least fifteen minutes before the usual lights out.

I am completely confident in Bear’s ability to pass this test.  His math scores are slipping a little this year, but he is a bright kid.  This may be a classic parent thing, but I am pretty damn certain that the school system, his teachers, and all the authority figures at school that hold influence over his developing mind have set his nerves on a tightrope.

This standardized testing is one of the things that confuses me about the educational system.  Standardized tests should be used solely as a benchmark, a health check of the educational system - not the core of the curriculum.  Still, I am not an expert on the expectations of the state or federal government and why this has been instituted.  I am also way too wrapped up in just trying to get through the day to care.  Bear will pass, of that I am sure and for right now that gives me once less thing to worry over.