SOMEONE HOLD ME BACK!!! STANDARDIZED TESTING? REALLY???!!!

OK, so I am not a curser by nature. In fact, those closest to me make fun of me and relish in the moment I get so wound up that something less-than-polite slips out.  But OH MY LORD!!!!  Who the hell are these people????   Did you see this?

Education Secretary Cardona stands firm on standardized testing mandate amid criticism

Oh yes...the Washington Post...and if this was their headline, I can only imagine the headlines in the more conservative publications. We got rid of one to welcome another bureaucratic fool who has no clue what our children are enduring.

Please help me to understand. Everything I read says that he cares deeply about our children, especially those in low economic circumstances. After being selected by Biden, he was welcomed and approved by senators on both sides of the political aisle. So I see this as a good sign. But then I have to think, what the royal !$%#&???  Sorry, did I just (not really) say that? I know I didn't, haha! But that is really what my mind is thinking.

What the #@!$ is someone thinking if they even remotely consider exposing our children to standardized testing in the midst of a pandemic?  Really? What??????  Please tell me.  Because here is what I see....

My daughter Rebecca, will be trying out for Lacrosse as a sophomore without ever having any experience playing the game.  Know why? Do I really need to tell you? BECAUSE WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC!!!  Yep, they never had a season last year. And so as a 2nd year high schooler, she will be trying out and playing as a first year athlete. Because as a freshman, she was sidetracked and focused on figuring out how to live through a pandemic.

A colleague of mine is enjoying her first year of teaching. In conversation it becomes apparent that she realizes that this first year is not really a first year at all...in fact she knows that it does not compute in the grand scheme of teaching. She has never seen a full class in person. She has never witnessed the cafeteria nonsense at lunchtime (that just made me tear up with a sense of loss), she has never been to a full faculty meeting sharing the collective exhaustion after enduring a full day of teaching. She has missed out on so much of the typical teaching experience in her first year. Know why? Do I really need to tell you? Apparently I do because our US Senators don't seem to know it...WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC!!!

My daughter Anna, a senior, will not have a typical prom, graduation ceremony or yearbook adorned with pictures of friends hanging with each other at schoolwide events.  She is silently and gracefully mourning the loss of what she thought life would look like in her last year of this chapter called school. Inside she and her classmates are wondering what the heck just happened, as are the rest of us, or at least those of us paying attention. Know why? Do I really need to tell you again? Probably not because you have a #@#!# clue! WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC!!!

So what is it about these folks in government that has helped them to avoid the pitfalls of living in the midst of a pandemic that the rest of us reading this have managed to survive? How the hell have they managed to avoid knowing that putting kids into standardized testing will be detrimental to every child???

Oh wait, Cordona, you need your statistics? Oh, I'm so sorry! Let me please vandalize and sacrifice the well-being of my children and my students so that their standardized test results, where they all are made out to be failures, can prove what we already know. Please, use my children to fund your next endeavor. I think they should all be made to suffer through the stupid #$@! tests that will do nothing more than illustrate to them, and their teachers who love them dearly and are trying to do everything to keep it all afloat, how much they have not been able to learn academic standards of math and reading and science IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC.

Just disgusting. I am sorry for those of  you who come here to be built up. Please accept my sincerest apologies. I have nothing positive to say today. This just sucks. 

***** I stepped away from the keyboard for a moment and well, I guess not having anything positive to say is not possible for me. How could it be if I am here with you??  Here is the positive. If there is any group of people who can get through this, it us...educators. Let us collectively prove again to Cordona and all those with the luxury of being clueless fools that we've got this. Our students will be whole. They will know we love them. They will get through this. Not because of politics and policies and all the government bullshit. Nope. They will persevere because we believe in them and will, as we have done all pandemic-year long, get them through this next tough time. Thank you, Cordona, for the opportunity to prove once again, that we love our students and can do anything put in our path to demonstrate to them that we believe in all that they can achieve.

Trusting The Double Yellow Line; the importance of boundaries

I remember my high school Earth Science teacher, Mr. Vitolo, talking about the risks taken every time we get into a car and drive on a road. Considering how long ago that was and how questionable my memory is, the fact that this stuck demonstrates the power of his message. He took his time to describe how ludicrous it was to trust that a painted line down the middle of the road would prohibit the oncoming traffic from careening into us. Oh, and then he went into the incredible power of the stop sign. No physical effort to make cars stop, yet we all assume its power to create a safe intersection. Let that sink in. Because it's true. And scary. Every day we trust the lines and signs on the road to keep us alive. We depend on them. We honor them and we believe that the other drivers with whom we share the road will do the same.

So how did we all learn that we don't cross that middle line in the road? Probably started when we were younger and we watched our adults driving. We observed. We maybe drew lines in the street to make a road that we traveled with our scooters and bikes, mimicking the modeling done for us by our adults. We knew the value of the painted line without anyone needing to show us the dangers involved in crossing over. It was an efficacious boundary, holding power by simply being present.

When we model boundaries for children, they learn to set healthy boundaries for themselves. When we neglect to model boundaries for children, they do not learn to set healthy boundaries for themselves. It really is that simple. What an incredible responsibility we have! How do you model boundaries with your children and students? Our culture has become foggy in the setting of boundaries. Cell phones at the table while we share dinner with others. TV on even when we are intending to give our attention to those around us. Google classroom assignments due all hours of the night or on the weekend outside of regular school hours. I can go on and on. We have muddied the waters and erased boundaries...the healthy lines in the road that are intended to keep us healthy and safe. 

And so, I implore you. Create boundaries for yourself and model them for the children who are watching you. They need to know it is OK to state their boundaries. In fact, this is what will keep them from feeling out of control. Let them see you turn off your phone and put it away for a chunk of time. Let them see you turn off "work" by leaving the computer screen. Let them be the receiver when you say "no" to getting them this or buying them that. These are opportunities to help them know and appreciate boundaries. Model for your students and children. Let them see you embrace the boundaries you set and the peace they bring you. Help them trust that their boundaries will, just as that double yellow painted line down the center of the road, keep them safe and healthy.