I Think We're Measuring The Wrong Things
As we near the end of the school year [not that I'm in school, or have kids in school, but I am aware that such things happen], I'm reminded of my elementary school days in Texas. Unique moments: We said the Texas Pledge of Allegiance every morning after saying the National Pledge of Allegiance. We had open-floor-concept classrooms--different rooms were separated just by bookshelves, pillars, or maybe just by space. And we took an annual competency assessment that went by various acronyms as time went by: TAKS, TAAS, STAAR, also [before my time] TABS, TEAMS ( learn all about it in this little booklet! ). I don't remember much of what was on those exams, except for one--a story about a violinist. As I understood it at the time, the short snippet focused on a particular female violinist, who apparently was very good and was 1st Chair Violin in her orchestra, but during one performance, her violin broke. And then she broke a lot of the other violinists' violins as she co