Standardized Test

As we cart yet another child to yet another test, I wonder, how do all these pieces fit together for success? How is it that crammed in information and filled in bubbles paint a picture of the person who lives in my home? Perhaps they don't. Perhaps they are simply steps in a process, a process as much about learning one's own capabilities as about proving one's own capabilities. 

As I go through life, I rarely have to fill in bubbles, but I quite often have to make choices when I don't know the right answer. I rarely have to show up in a crowd of hundreds, armed with particular pencils, but I quite often have to come prepared and face a crowd of strangers. I rarely take tests that are scored, but I quite often feel tested by tasks I've never done before.

Each day, we face tests that seem far from standardized. How do we hold up? Do we learn the strategies? Do we make educated guesses when we need to and learn to say nothing when that is the better choice? And when we walk away from each test, are we able to clear our heads for the next one, and realize that each test is simply one small part of a much bigger process?

We are done with this test, and good results or bad, we move on. To the rest of life's standardized, and not so standardized, tests.