“A five-year old child watched helplessly as his younger brother drowned. In that same year, glaucoma began to darken his world, and his family was too poor to afford medical help that might have saved his sight. Both of his parents died during his teens. Eventually he was sent to a state institution for the blind. Because he was African-American, he was not permitted access to many activities, including music. Given the obstacles he faced, one could not have predicted that he would someday become a world-renowned musician. His name is Ray Charles.”

And so to make better musicians, we need to kill their siblings, poke out their eyes, withhold income from those children’s parents, prevent their parents from receiving medical care, put them in an orphanage, limit their activities, especially including limiting their access to music……

Ludicrous?  Most certainly.  Horrible too.

So why are we taking this exact same pathway with the Smarter Balance Assessments?  Where did this idea come from that to get children to learn we have to psychologically traumatize them, shock them with torture, to make them become better students?

Ray Charles rose above his conditions.  But to force his conditions on all potential musicians in order to make more Ray Charleses, is flat out idiotic.

Yet that is exactly what Mark Murphy and the Department of Education did when they approved the use of the Smarter Balanced Assessment… That is exactly what Greg Lavelle did when he switched his vote from nay to yay and this test became required for all students…..

There are potential risks and costs to grit. It may not always be productive to persevere in the face of challenge. For example, persevering to accomplish goals that are extrinsically motivated, unimportant to the student, or in some way inappropriate for the student can potentially induce stress, anxiety, and distraction, and have detrimental impacts on a student’s long-term retention, conceptual learning, or psychological well-being. Careful research is still necessary to help educators learn how to protect students and to gauge and fine-tune practices and interventions.

Careful research is exactly what was NOT done before Dave Sokola rolled this program out to our students… You now, as parents only have one alternative left to save your child’s education… OPT YOUR CHILD OUT…