Ozy and Millie by Dana Simpson for August 26, 2020

Wahnsinnig can make sentences, and she’s the one that doesn’t want to. What does that say about Vine?

Very nicely played. Testing kids (using machine-gradable questions) teaches them to choose from a limited set of possibilities, quickly and with a feel for “socially” correct answers. On the other hand, well educated kids (and other people) learn to cope with open ended questions that have complex answers that may not even be measurably better than some other complex answer. And the best of them learn / grow to be the ones who ASK great questions.

I do despair for our current crop of kids. And hope they can overcome the handicaps we keep giving them.

Sure you’re loading kids’ craws with knowledge, but are you teaching them to think, and perhaps (horrors!) even think outside the box? Today’s problems involve not only raw knowledge but creative thinking to crack.

I take it the principle hasn’t figured out that life is an essay question.

Standardized tests only measure how well you take a standardized test. That includes ACT, SAT, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, UCAT, GAMSAT, etc.

As a high school senior, nothing discourages me more than seeing college entry heavily based on a standardized test.

I always did badly on those tests, but the rest of the time? Straight A’s. Not fair.

You’ll really have something to complain about when AIs are grading your grandchildren’s essays.