Education - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

“Fight or Flight” Mode

As I moved on forward to my college career I started to realize that school was what I made of it. When I put forth a full effort, I received the most out of my education. Receiving an education has a lot of benefits, but it is up to us to find out what those benefits are. When it comes to testing, students start to feel pressured and stressed. It can affect their ability to perform and make students lose confidence. Students can also begin to develop a dislike for school. Research suggests that too much stress is not good and can become harmful. When stress becomes too much, the brain goes into “fight or flight” mode, where it is getting harder to think and process while trying to answer standardized test questions. When in high school I remember being good with my grades but when it came down to testing anxiety got the best of me and my confidence was lowered.

School teaches us what our leaders are too busy to explain. By this, I mean that our teachers are the ones who educate us about our government and society. It is our teachers who govern us on what we can and cannot do. Standardized tests exist for other purposes not for educational ones. The companies who format these tests make billions. Politicians mainly get elected because they make promises such as better test results. School administrations get more funding by forging test scores. Everyone benefits from these tests except the children who are stuck taking them. Standardized tests happen in different learning environments than what students are used to in a normal classroom: students are timed in different sections, you can not talk, you can not ask questions. Standardized testing does not bring into consideration that some people are very smart but are not good test-takers. It also does not take into consideration that someone might be going through things at home or some people like me have anxiety when it comes to testing. Standardized tests do not test creativity.

The No Child Left Behind Law

In high school, the only thing that the teacher did to prepare for the SAT was go over the science in math sections. They did not help with social studies, reading, or writing sections. Most of the classroom time consists of either taking the tests or preparing for the tests. The No Child Left Behind Law only tests reading, math, and science that means that art, social studies, gym, and history are given less attention. Some people can not afford to pay the fee to take the prep test or the test itself. I know in high school if it were not for the fee waivers provided for me I would not have been able to take the test that determines the rest of my life. The test is worth $55 for taking it once. If I wanted to take it more than twice it would be $55 for every single time I wanted to take it. Standardized tests do not provide ways on how to perform better for next time. The results are not given back to the teachers and students until months later, and there are no instructions provided by test companies on how to improve test scores. Standardized testing does not take into consideration how much a student has grown over the year. This to teachers can be a blow to the face because they are the ones who work hard to help students grow and students who put in their best effort but do not do well on one test.