TAKS tesing.

Is the TAKS sucking the fun out of early education? I did a speech on the pressures the TAKS test has put on teachers and students to perform. Performing is not what learning is about. The TAKS includes a math portion, science and history portion and a reading/writing portion. Basically the penalty for not passing the test is failure to graduate to the next grade. And even more stunning, the test does not follow the curriculum of the grade. A teacher could be teaching U.S. history in her class and the test could focus on World history. This has proved to be an inadequate way of testing children of their knowledge, and provided a very stressful and competitive environment for them to grow in their knowledge. No longer is learning exciting and interesting, it has now become forceful and frustrating, with a ever looming fear of failure. Something must be done to change this nonsensical procedure, so that kids can return to loving their education and enjoying school.