This Woman Blamed The School System For Failing A Math Test, But Not Everyone Agrees
Raquel Isabelle de Alderete is a 23-year-old author who recently received a flurry of attention online after she shared her experience with the standardized testing system at school. When she was only in 2nd grade, Raquel was so excited to read the newest addition to the Harry Potter series that she couldn’t even concentrate on her math test. According to her, she failed the test which led to a series of unfortunate events. For the rest of her life, she was deemed ‘considerably bad at math’. Even though Raquel’s text raises an important message about a flawed school system, not everyone agrees with her, saying she’s blaming the system to cover for her own mistake.
Scroll down to read the text yourself, and don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comments!
More info: inkskinned
Recently, a 23-year-old writer Raquel Isabelle de Alderete shared her opinion on why standardized tests at school are the worst
Image credits: Pxhere
According to her, the current testing system made her believe that she’s terrible at math
Image credits: https://pixabay.com/en/child-kid-play-study-color-learn-865116/
While many thought that Raquel’s message is very important
Others believed that it was her fault for not trying to pass the test
What do you think? Don’t forget to tell us in the comments!
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Did she actually read Harry Potter though? She says Harry put his name in the Goblet of Fire, but we all know Barty Crouch Jr did that disguised as Mad-Eye Moody.. wtf?
After reading that sentence I came down here immediately to b*tch about the same thing! :D
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I fall firmly in the "other people" category. I'm glad this woman got her life together and professional help etc. However, the system didn't fail her. She freely admits she gave up.
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As an educator, we see anomalies like this frequently. A high-performing student bombs on a standardized test. That's why we DO NOT USE the results of ONE standardized test to plot the whole course of the student's life! We will look at their performance in class, will ask the student about what happened during the test etc. A student can bottom out on the test due to illness, anxiety, willful disregard for the test, etc. I had a student fail a portion of her high school graduation test because her infant was sick that morning. When she retook that portion of the test, she passed with flying colors! (Yes, she was a teenage mother, but she stayed in school and finished with a high school diploma AND technical training for immediate entry to the work force!)
Thank you for bringing your obvious dedication to this most important profession.
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She made a hasty, little-kid decision, and then used that one early test as an excuse to slack off in math, but everyone fails here. I'm surprised that absolutely nobody arranged for her to be retested. I'm guessing her parents are just as complacent as she is, since they seemed not to advocate on her behalf. However, the teacher usually knows his/her students well enough to notice an abnormally poor performance.
As a retired teacher reading this, I can tell you that, if this is the whole story, the system failed her, and I've seen it happen many times. The problem isn't the test she took, The problem is how the results were used. A remarkably low score should have set off warning signs in the minds of all the educators who worked with this little girl so that they could use other means of testing and evaluation to determine the nature of her problem. A different environment, a bit of conversation, perhaps a little one on one counseling might have revealed the true situation. What sensible person labels a child on the basis of one test? I've worked with students who never succeeded. I've seen the looks on their faces the first time they score 100 on a test. Sometimes it takes the whole school year to get them to believe in themselves again after the system has spent years telling them they are failures and they can't. Self-confidence is a powerful thing and our schools sometimes destroy it.
Okay, letting kids have a non-school-related book on their table when doing an exam just seems a recipe for disaster. Can't see a single reason to do that beyond wanting your class to fail(the only questionable "good" - encourage kids to get done faster - is actually bad because they need to be encourage to do *better*, not *faster*, especially if it's one of those stupid "select the correct answer" things which you can just put at random and be done with it). I'm also against the "choose the correct answer" tests for the most part, it's the solution that matters the most, at least while you're learning, not the answer. That aside...like others have already said, her failure wasn't the system's fault. I'm pretty sure 90% of kids failing exams could do them just fine if only they'd bothered/focused, but their mind was on something more important for them - Harry Potter, new video game, football, whatever. It's not just about having the theoretical capability but also about having that a
*ability to focus on what's important right now.
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It sucks when the adults don't care enough to ask and pay a little more attention to find out the underlying problem but it happens a lot and you get labeled a little too quickly
To me it sounds like she simply theorised and then concluded all by herself that her whole decades long underachieving in maths can be attributed to that one test. It is unlikely though that that is the case, and there is no reason to accept her own surmisation on her academic failure.
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After reading through that whole thing, I'd say she's equally bad at English.
What happened to this site's focus on the uplifting or interesting articles that used to live here for pandas? The wholesome or light-hearted ones still are around but they are starting to feel crowded out by sniping, divisive clickbait and two-minute-hate articles.
She's not saying it's not her fault - she's saying the adults in her life let her down by kind of branding her as dumb
Yes, exactly. When you get told you're dumb you start to believe it. I've always hated math and it was very hard for me to keep my marks in the average to above average range. Then one year I kept getting poor marks and in the end gave up. Later in the year at a parent-teacher meeting this teacher tells my parents that I actually did reasonably well, but she was giving me poor marks, because I didn't like her (I never gave her trouble, I was well behaved). However at that point I was so confused about what I wasn't getting and doubled with my general dislike for math, I never managed to make up for the damage she did. I did manage to fix my GPA for graduation, but I have no idea how I did it.
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Most tests are basically 'how good is your memory' not mainly 'how much do you know'. But is there a better way to test people? How about a gradual one based on your performances daily/weekly/monthly with a final result at the end of the year instead of condensed into 2hours or whatever.
My memory sucks, and I agree. :) I understood and enjoyed algebra for a full two hours... the next day it's gone, like it never happened, and now I hate algebra.
Load More Replies... I don't know the American school system, since I'm not from America, but I find it hard to believe that one single test very early on in her school years, would've caused her to suddenly underachieve in maths for the rest of her school years, if she had the natural average aptitude for maths as other kids, she would've done better in subsequent tests under other circumstances than the test that she failed in grade 2. Maybe she's just not tjat good a t maths, nothing wrong with that.
Hold up, this woman stopped paying attention on an exam because she wanted to read a book, was fully aware of this and didnt go back to the exam and finish it before reading her book...then says that its the teachers fault for looking at her test which she completey failed at and says shes bad at math...she realises that its the teachers job to do that, THEY ARE PAID TO NOTICE WHEN A STUDENT IS FAILING
For me, it was gym class. I wasn't a particularly athletic child, preferring to read instead of run. All year long in gym we'd play with the parachute, maybe tumble on some mats, play the dreaded dodge ball, etc. Then, come spring, we'd have to do The Physical Fitness Test. This would involve pull-ups, sits ups, climbing a rope, doing hand over hand on a ladder. Nothing we had done all year long, Nothing I did in my real world life. I would fail. Every time. Thus, I was "unfit". It is only recently, as an adult, that I realize they set me up to fail by not having us do things year-long to prepare for the fitness test in the spring. If I had some training or even guidance, maybe I wouldn't have failed. No one saw it that way, though. Much like OP. She was labeled, believed it and it set her up to fail until something in her adult brain said WAIT A MINUTE!!
Its not the person's problem....ok yes she wasn't paying attention (I'm a book worm too) but anyway, just want to point out the reconned my brother had adhd and wanted to medicatie him but mum said when he had something he liked doing (drawing/reading ) he could sit still...sure he might've tapped his foot but his concentration was there. She just changed his diet and it made all the difference (and no we didnt live on junk food to start with). A family friend who is a high school maths teacher made a deal with the students that bought tablets/cell phones "do your work and I'll give you 10min at the end of class to play with them", he got work done...but later got in trouble from the local school board
Honestly, I can relate. I learn in a different way than a lot of people do (I highly suspect that I'm on the autistic spectrum), and so, because of that, most teachers branded me as being 'stupid'. I used to do very well in school- when the teachers were teaching in a visual manner. When teachers give up on you, you give up as well because you believe them. 'They're an adult, so they must know something I don't'. Students with ADHD, students on the functional autistic spectrum and the like are just automatically branded as being 'stupid', and teachers give up on them. The system is so overworked and crowded that individual students don't get the attention they deserve to help them learn. Instead, there's a general attitude that if you don't learn the same way as everyone else, well, tough sh!t, we don't care.
This! This is why I have no trouble believing the woman. Schools have standardized teaching plans/methods and if that doesn't work for you you're on your own.
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Ops maybe her school could have been at fault if they were understaffed or not qualified to deal with students of various capabilities.
I knew this was bs when she said harry put his name in the goblet of fire. Someone forgot the plot.
I was bad to worse at math.... and any other assignment. But this was my own fault. I don't blame anybody else for this.
Obviously didn't focus on reading Harry Potter as he didn't put his name in the goblet. Hate when people don't capitalise their letters when typing. I did terribly at maths in school, my teacher was useless. However I know I could have asked another teacher for help, I didn't so it's my fault.
A lot of the negative comments imo seem to not understand ADD or ADHD. At least that's what I gather. My mother has ADD, into adult years. I don't have it myself but I am sensitive to it. One of the BIGGEST lessons I learned is that "test taking" is a SEPARATE skill to the knowledge. A person could know and understand the subject very well but do poorly on tests. Some of the way the questions are phrased and the typos and over-wording can be like reading "legal-ese", which you'd only understand if you were a lawyer.
For example: Apple plus apple plus apple plus apple plus apple plus apear cut one in half what equals?! uhm...? 7! wrong! it's 5 and a half! pear?! that was a typo! Full of them is book! Does this make sense?
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It's true that this woman failed in 2nd grade due to some stupid blunder, but at the same time, it was pretty stupid for the school to use the test as a definite measure on her academic performance and don't look further. The woman could've just asked the test administrator about her situation, and something could've been done about it rather than her failing the math portion completely. But she was 7, and there are times when kids at that age don't know better, especially regarding standardized tests. Based on my experiences, 1st-2nd grade is usually the time when kids are introduced to standardized tests.
TheBatmanWhoLaughs is an idiot. She 'knew the stakes'? No second-grader understands how things like a bad test grade can affect your whole life!
Everyone here is commenting their opinions and I'm just like "Harry did NOT put his name into the Goblet of Fire! It was Crouch!"
I had the same issue with my son. Me and his dad knew how smart and eager to learn he was but his teachers kept saying that he was easily distracted and messed around all the time. We tried to tell the school time and again that something was wrong and he needed them to test for dyslexia but they felt they knew better than us. Roll forward to first year of Uni (he got there in spite of the school giving no help) and within a couple of months he was diagnosed with dyslexia and given full help. He is now doing a software development degree and is loving it. Apparently computer code is easier to understand than normal language when you have dyslexia. Xxxx
On one hand, she is CLEARLY a genius...because when she was in second grade, she had ALREADY figured out that standardized testing was b******t. On the other hand, she is a complete moron because she couldnt follow simple instructions on what section of the test to answer the questions on!! (Oh, and she also had undiagnosed ADHD. Everyone has that as far as I can tell) Please ppl, stop making other ppl responsible for YOUR f**k ups! It was YOUR TEST, YOUR ANSWER SHEET, AND...YOUR DECISIONS! (CLEARLY from 3rd grade to 12th grade, she was a zombie and had NO control over anything she did).
One bad test should not affect your whole future. I'll admit that I'm having trouble over the fact that she just stopped trying so suddenly. She must have liked the idea of being bad at math and not having to try any more. But I can also admit that she was young and should not be expected to step up and correct the adults, nor even to be as responsible as to just keep trying her best even though she was bored. There is an easy way that this could have been made better: not to act rashly off of ONE test and move the child into a completely different class. So yes, we could argue over whose fault it was - or we could admit that we could do better. :)
She knew the book was distracting her, and decided to abandon her test in order to read it. Even if she has ADHD, she could have done more to stop herself from giving up, and reading some crappy book. My brother has Asperger's, and aside from being held back a year due to struggling with the shift from elementary level education, to high school level, he did just fine with his tests, and has now held down his first ever job for the last 10 years. Although I think his Asperger's might be responsible for his lack of any kind of advancement at work.
I look at this both ways. A) her parents and teacher should've paid attention of why she did so horrible and held her accountable. Then maybe they would've caught on to her laziness. BUT at the same time, it was friggin second grade, she couldn't do what the rest of us did duing a crappy year and pull our head's from our asses and try harder the next year? Ridiculous.
She is bad at math at 7 years old? She is horrible in grammar and punctuation at 23!! This person is a writer?
I failed everything to do with math in school. It was a grey wall came down in front of me. 15 years later, to get into college, I needed a math credit. In Ontario Canada, adult mature students can take correspondence courses. OMG! I loved it and got 100%!! One year later I wrote the entrance exam and got 88% in algebra and geometry !! It is so so so easy!! I felt mad that the school system basically screwed me. If math was taught like this, I would have enjoyed school instead of being terrified!!
It's not her fault and neither the school sistem. The parents on the other hand should have paid more attention. They could have asked for a retest and explain the importance of this tests to her.
A similar thing happened to me. It was a clerical error though. I should have been in "regular" math but was slotted into a remedial class. I never really caught up TBH. Was 7th grade. I have ADD diagnosed at age 15. This blaming the test excuse is utter b******t. They test and watch the "slow" kids FAR more than regular kids. You put no effort in and teachers teach, it's your job to learn and your PARENTS responsibility to problem solve. Testing is a tool, used improperly it will not achieve your desired result. It's like polygraphs. People think pass/fail. Absolutely literally NOTHING is pass fail about a poly. It's a tool for getting the most accurate information re: desired topic. Like standardized testing it's about getting where you want to go from where you are. Used properly in skilled hands it's awesome. There can be failure without fault.
Hm, I failed some tests, too, because I was reaaally lazy (9 y.o, wasn't fond of math and liked to read instead of doing math homework etc.), so I got into a "b-course" (instead of "a") for 6 month. My parents were livid because they knew I was lazy. Did my best and went to "a" again. By no account was this a mistake of the school or test system- I was responsible.
I get it. Teachers perceive a student one way, label them, and rather than saying "Let's work with this child" instead they write them off. Teachers look at students through their own experiences, likes, dislikes, prejudices. Each teacher should look at each student anew, but they rarely do this. It was bad decades ago, it's far worse today.
I don't think anyone is really judging her, we or should I say I don't understand her point and how the school or testing are to blame if she intentionally did c**p. I was s**t academically in high school but as she did I chose to be. I didn't like being told to read, so I didn't. Well not school books. I read a lot of silly novels. However, I can never blame the school for dropping from the 1st stream/class, whatever. I mean I made no effort, even for the standardised exams. If she chose to do better for the next test and in class the teachers would have looked at her different. Maybe she should have indicated that after that one test she never thought to bother showing the teachers she could do better. I think blame the teachers if they kept on about her being dumb but not test her separately to her capabilities. One French teacher I had was more upset my French was advanced than what she taught and kept calling a show off and always kicked me out. Never spoke French again and failed all exams after, I was 12. Maths teachers said I'm useless after standardised testing and that stuck I'm my head, til this day. But I blame the teachers. Like blame her teachers for being to lazy to care or they could have been overworked to bother, then it's a systematic issue of poor workforce support. With regards to standardised testing, even after being put with the "less capable students" as they were called, it's the teachers at fault after. Teachers should assess what your issues are and help accordingly, but that's my opinion. Sometimes you also need to get your parents or guardian to champion your ability, if you were doing well before they should ask what's happening now, not just take the schools word that you're suddenly incapable. Well after being call dumb by teachers and peers, I now have a BSc (Hons) and Masters with amazing passes, the latter received at 33. And only got an ADHD diagnosis 6 months before Masters thesis submission. That was two years ago. And that after flunking my high school final national exams/tests, which in some subjects was my fault and other the teachers. And the tests/exams weren't at fault (apologies, I couldn't review for typos 😔)
I do have a mild form of dyslexia as does my brother but I did well on tests. It was the homework part that slowed me down.
Okay, I'm so sorry but I stopped reading after "Harry put nis name in the goblet". It is wriitten black in white that he did not. I'm sorry but I cannot believe anything else this woman has to say after she got her HP facts wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdoD2147Fik
It was a series of behaviors, not one standardized test that drove this person into lower level classes. And she discovered that if she focused, she could do well. My goodness, take a little responsibility for your actions.
It. Is. Not. Always. As. Simple. As. "Just. Focus." For. People. With. ADHD.
Load More Replies... Oh well, oh well. People on social media telling "their story". Who would not agree that testing particularly small children without care is not wise? Who would not agree that moedern pedagogics are about individual assessments? Who would not agree that schools often fail to cater for what would make everyone learn best? Who would not agree that the educational systems tend to be underfinanced to cater for every pupil individually? But: who would not agree that yet another personal, unverifyable rant on social media is but an anecdote?
People in the comments who argue that "she shouldn't have been lazy and she clearly said she didn't bother" are honestly part of the problem to refuse to see how ADHD and other mental disabilities affect peoples attention, will and so on, it is wrong to judge after ONE bad test performance, it messed up her education because THEY choose to treat her badly, so many people can do wonders when they put effort in, but what if your very own brain stands in the way to make that effort happen? Read up on mental disabilities peeps.
Did she actually read Harry Potter though? She says Harry put his name in the Goblet of Fire, but we all know Barty Crouch Jr did that disguised as Mad-Eye Moody.. wtf?
After reading that sentence I came down here immediately to b*tch about the same thing! :D
Load More Replies... I fall firmly in the "other people" category. I'm glad this woman got her life together and professional help etc. However, the system didn't fail her. She freely admits she gave up.
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Load More Replies... As an educator, we see anomalies like this frequently. A high-performing student bombs on a standardized test. That's why we DO NOT USE the results of ONE standardized test to plot the whole course of the student's life! We will look at their performance in class, will ask the student about what happened during the test etc. A student can bottom out on the test due to illness, anxiety, willful disregard for the test, etc. I had a student fail a portion of her high school graduation test because her infant was sick that morning. When she retook that portion of the test, she passed with flying colors! (Yes, she was a teenage mother, but she stayed in school and finished with a high school diploma AND technical training for immediate entry to the work force!)
Thank you for bringing your obvious dedication to this most important profession.
Load More Replies... She made a hasty, little-kid decision, and then used that one early test as an excuse to slack off in math, but everyone fails here. I'm surprised that absolutely nobody arranged for her to be retested. I'm guessing her parents are just as complacent as she is, since they seemed not to advocate on her behalf. However, the teacher usually knows his/her students well enough to notice an abnormally poor performance.
As a retired teacher reading this, I can tell you that, if this is the whole story, the system failed her, and I've seen it happen many times. The problem isn't the test she took, The problem is how the results were used. A remarkably low score should have set off warning signs in the minds of all the educators who worked with this little girl so that they could use other means of testing and evaluation to determine the nature of her problem. A different environment, a bit of conversation, perhaps a little one on one counseling might have revealed the true situation. What sensible person labels a child on the basis of one test? I've worked with students who never succeeded. I've seen the looks on their faces the first time they score 100 on a test. Sometimes it takes the whole school year to get them to believe in themselves again after the system has spent years telling them they are failures and they can't. Self-confidence is a powerful thing and our schools sometimes destroy it.
Okay, letting kids have a non-school-related book on their table when doing an exam just seems a recipe for disaster. Can't see a single reason to do that beyond wanting your class to fail(the only questionable "good" - encourage kids to get done faster - is actually bad because they need to be encourage to do *better*, not *faster*, especially if it's one of those stupid "select the correct answer" things which you can just put at random and be done with it). I'm also against the "choose the correct answer" tests for the most part, it's the solution that matters the most, at least while you're learning, not the answer. That aside...like others have already said, her failure wasn't the system's fault. I'm pretty sure 90% of kids failing exams could do them just fine if only they'd bothered/focused, but their mind was on something more important for them - Harry Potter, new video game, football, whatever. It's not just about having the theoretical capability but also about having that a
*ability to focus on what's important right now.
Load More Replies... It sucks when the adults don't care enough to ask and pay a little more attention to find out the underlying problem but it happens a lot and you get labeled a little too quickly
To me it sounds like she simply theorised and then concluded all by herself that her whole decades long underachieving in maths can be attributed to that one test. It is unlikely though that that is the case, and there is no reason to accept her own surmisation on her academic failure.
Load More Replies... After reading through that whole thing, I'd say she's equally bad at English.
What happened to this site's focus on the uplifting or interesting articles that used to live here for pandas? The wholesome or light-hearted ones still are around but they are starting to feel crowded out by sniping, divisive clickbait and two-minute-hate articles.
She's not saying it's not her fault - she's saying the adults in her life let her down by kind of branding her as dumb
Yes, exactly. When you get told you're dumb you start to believe it. I've always hated math and it was very hard for me to keep my marks in the average to above average range. Then one year I kept getting poor marks and in the end gave up. Later in the year at a parent-teacher meeting this teacher tells my parents that I actually did reasonably well, but she was giving me poor marks, because I didn't like her (I never gave her trouble, I was well behaved). However at that point I was so confused about what I wasn't getting and doubled with my general dislike for math, I never managed to make up for the damage she did. I did manage to fix my GPA for graduation, but I have no idea how I did it.
Load More Replies... Most tests are basically 'how good is your memory' not mainly 'how much do you know'. But is there a better way to test people? How about a gradual one based on your performances daily/weekly/monthly with a final result at the end of the year instead of condensed into 2hours or whatever.
My memory sucks, and I agree. :) I understood and enjoyed algebra for a full two hours... the next day it's gone, like it never happened, and now I hate algebra.
Load More Replies... I don't know the American school system, since I'm not from America, but I find it hard to believe that one single test very early on in her school years, would've caused her to suddenly underachieve in maths for the rest of her school years, if she had the natural average aptitude for maths as other kids, she would've done better in subsequent tests under other circumstances than the test that she failed in grade 2. Maybe she's just not tjat good a t maths, nothing wrong with that.
Hold up, this woman stopped paying attention on an exam because she wanted to read a book, was fully aware of this and didnt go back to the exam and finish it before reading her book...then says that its the teachers fault for looking at her test which she completey failed at and says shes bad at math...she realises that its the teachers job to do that, THEY ARE PAID TO NOTICE WHEN A STUDENT IS FAILING
For me, it was gym class. I wasn't a particularly athletic child, preferring to read instead of run. All year long in gym we'd play with the parachute, maybe tumble on some mats, play the dreaded dodge ball, etc. Then, come spring, we'd have to do The Physical Fitness Test. This would involve pull-ups, sits ups, climbing a rope, doing hand over hand on a ladder. Nothing we had done all year long, Nothing I did in my real world life. I would fail. Every time. Thus, I was "unfit". It is only recently, as an adult, that I realize they set me up to fail by not having us do things year-long to prepare for the fitness test in the spring. If I had some training or even guidance, maybe I wouldn't have failed. No one saw it that way, though. Much like OP. She was labeled, believed it and it set her up to fail until something in her adult brain said WAIT A MINUTE!!
Its not the person's problem....ok yes she wasn't paying attention (I'm a book worm too) but anyway, just want to point out the reconned my brother had adhd and wanted to medicatie him but mum said when he had something he liked doing (drawing/reading ) he could sit still...sure he might've tapped his foot but his concentration was there. She just changed his diet and it made all the difference (and no we didnt live on junk food to start with). A family friend who is a high school maths teacher made a deal with the students that bought tablets/cell phones "do your work and I'll give you 10min at the end of class to play with them", he got work done...but later got in trouble from the local school board
Honestly, I can relate. I learn in a different way than a lot of people do (I highly suspect that I'm on the autistic spectrum), and so, because of that, most teachers branded me as being 'stupid'. I used to do very well in school- when the teachers were teaching in a visual manner. When teachers give up on you, you give up as well because you believe them. 'They're an adult, so they must know something I don't'. Students with ADHD, students on the functional autistic spectrum and the like are just automatically branded as being 'stupid', and teachers give up on them. The system is so overworked and crowded that individual students don't get the attention they deserve to help them learn. Instead, there's a general attitude that if you don't learn the same way as everyone else, well, tough sh!t, we don't care.
This! This is why I have no trouble believing the woman. Schools have standardized teaching plans/methods and if that doesn't work for you you're on your own.
Load More Replies... Ops maybe her school could have been at fault if they were understaffed or not qualified to deal with students of various capabilities.
I knew this was bs when she said harry put his name in the goblet of fire. Someone forgot the plot.
I was bad to worse at math.... and any other assignment. But this was my own fault. I don't blame anybody else for this.
Obviously didn't focus on reading Harry Potter as he didn't put his name in the goblet. Hate when people don't capitalise their letters when typing. I did terribly at maths in school, my teacher was useless. However I know I could have asked another teacher for help, I didn't so it's my fault.
A lot of the negative comments imo seem to not understand ADD or ADHD. At least that's what I gather. My mother has ADD, into adult years. I don't have it myself but I am sensitive to it. One of the BIGGEST lessons I learned is that "test taking" is a SEPARATE skill to the knowledge. A person could know and understand the subject very well but do poorly on tests. Some of the way the questions are phrased and the typos and over-wording can be like reading "legal-ese", which you'd only understand if you were a lawyer.
For example: Apple plus apple plus apple plus apple plus apple plus apear cut one in half what equals?! uhm...? 7! wrong! it's 5 and a half! pear?! that was a typo! Full of them is book! Does this make sense?
Load More Replies... It's true that this woman failed in 2nd grade due to some stupid blunder, but at the same time, it was pretty stupid for the school to use the test as a definite measure on her academic performance and don't look further. The woman could've just asked the test administrator about her situation, and something could've been done about it rather than her failing the math portion completely. But she was 7, and there are times when kids at that age don't know better, especially regarding standardized tests. Based on my experiences, 1st-2nd grade is usually the time when kids are introduced to standardized tests.
TheBatmanWhoLaughs is an idiot. She 'knew the stakes'? No second-grader understands how things like a bad test grade can affect your whole life!
Everyone here is commenting their opinions and I'm just like "Harry did NOT put his name into the Goblet of Fire! It was Crouch!"
I had the same issue with my son. Me and his dad knew how smart and eager to learn he was but his teachers kept saying that he was easily distracted and messed around all the time. We tried to tell the school time and again that something was wrong and he needed them to test for dyslexia but they felt they knew better than us. Roll forward to first year of Uni (he got there in spite of the school giving no help) and within a couple of months he was diagnosed with dyslexia and given full help. He is now doing a software development degree and is loving it. Apparently computer code is easier to understand than normal language when you have dyslexia. Xxxx
On one hand, she is CLEARLY a genius...because when she was in second grade, she had ALREADY figured out that standardized testing was b******t. On the other hand, she is a complete moron because she couldnt follow simple instructions on what section of the test to answer the questions on!! (Oh, and she also had undiagnosed ADHD. Everyone has that as far as I can tell) Please ppl, stop making other ppl responsible for YOUR f**k ups! It was YOUR TEST, YOUR ANSWER SHEET, AND...YOUR DECISIONS! (CLEARLY from 3rd grade to 12th grade, she was a zombie and had NO control over anything she did).
One bad test should not affect your whole future. I'll admit that I'm having trouble over the fact that she just stopped trying so suddenly. She must have liked the idea of being bad at math and not having to try any more. But I can also admit that she was young and should not be expected to step up and correct the adults, nor even to be as responsible as to just keep trying her best even though she was bored. There is an easy way that this could have been made better: not to act rashly off of ONE test and move the child into a completely different class. So yes, we could argue over whose fault it was - or we could admit that we could do better. :)
She knew the book was distracting her, and decided to abandon her test in order to read it. Even if she has ADHD, she could have done more to stop herself from giving up, and reading some crappy book. My brother has Asperger's, and aside from being held back a year due to struggling with the shift from elementary level education, to high school level, he did just fine with his tests, and has now held down his first ever job for the last 10 years. Although I think his Asperger's might be responsible for his lack of any kind of advancement at work.
I look at this both ways. A) her parents and teacher should've paid attention of why she did so horrible and held her accountable. Then maybe they would've caught on to her laziness. BUT at the same time, it was friggin second grade, she couldn't do what the rest of us did duing a crappy year and pull our head's from our asses and try harder the next year? Ridiculous.
She is bad at math at 7 years old? She is horrible in grammar and punctuation at 23!! This person is a writer?
I failed everything to do with math in school. It was a grey wall came down in front of me. 15 years later, to get into college, I needed a math credit. In Ontario Canada, adult mature students can take correspondence courses. OMG! I loved it and got 100%!! One year later I wrote the entrance exam and got 88% in algebra and geometry !! It is so so so easy!! I felt mad that the school system basically screwed me. If math was taught like this, I would have enjoyed school instead of being terrified!!
It's not her fault and neither the school sistem. The parents on the other hand should have paid more attention. They could have asked for a retest and explain the importance of this tests to her.
A similar thing happened to me. It was a clerical error though. I should have been in "regular" math but was slotted into a remedial class. I never really caught up TBH. Was 7th grade. I have ADD diagnosed at age 15. This blaming the test excuse is utter b******t. They test and watch the "slow" kids FAR more than regular kids. You put no effort in and teachers teach, it's your job to learn and your PARENTS responsibility to problem solve. Testing is a tool, used improperly it will not achieve your desired result. It's like polygraphs. People think pass/fail. Absolutely literally NOTHING is pass fail about a poly. It's a tool for getting the most accurate information re: desired topic. Like standardized testing it's about getting where you want to go from where you are. Used properly in skilled hands it's awesome. There can be failure without fault.
Hm, I failed some tests, too, because I was reaaally lazy (9 y.o, wasn't fond of math and liked to read instead of doing math homework etc.), so I got into a "b-course" (instead of "a") for 6 month. My parents were livid because they knew I was lazy. Did my best and went to "a" again. By no account was this a mistake of the school or test system- I was responsible.
I get it. Teachers perceive a student one way, label them, and rather than saying "Let's work with this child" instead they write them off. Teachers look at students through their own experiences, likes, dislikes, prejudices. Each teacher should look at each student anew, but they rarely do this. It was bad decades ago, it's far worse today.
I don't think anyone is really judging her, we or should I say I don't understand her point and how the school or testing are to blame if she intentionally did c**p. I was s**t academically in high school but as she did I chose to be. I didn't like being told to read, so I didn't. Well not school books. I read a lot of silly novels. However, I can never blame the school for dropping from the 1st stream/class, whatever. I mean I made no effort, even for the standardised exams. If she chose to do better for the next test and in class the teachers would have looked at her different. Maybe she should have indicated that after that one test she never thought to bother showing the teachers she could do better. I think blame the teachers if they kept on about her being dumb but not test her separately to her capabilities. One French teacher I had was more upset my French was advanced than what she taught and kept calling a show off and always kicked me out. Never spoke French again and failed all exams after, I was 12. Maths teachers said I'm useless after standardised testing and that stuck I'm my head, til this day. But I blame the teachers. Like blame her teachers for being to lazy to care or they could have been overworked to bother, then it's a systematic issue of poor workforce support. With regards to standardised testing, even after being put with the "less capable students" as they were called, it's the teachers at fault after. Teachers should assess what your issues are and help accordingly, but that's my opinion. Sometimes you also need to get your parents or guardian to champion your ability, if you were doing well before they should ask what's happening now, not just take the schools word that you're suddenly incapable. Well after being call dumb by teachers and peers, I now have a BSc (Hons) and Masters with amazing passes, the latter received at 33. And only got an ADHD diagnosis 6 months before Masters thesis submission. That was two years ago. And that after flunking my high school final national exams/tests, which in some subjects was my fault and other the teachers. And the tests/exams weren't at fault (apologies, I couldn't review for typos 😔)
I do have a mild form of dyslexia as does my brother but I did well on tests. It was the homework part that slowed me down.
Okay, I'm so sorry but I stopped reading after "Harry put nis name in the goblet". It is wriitten black in white that he did not. I'm sorry but I cannot believe anything else this woman has to say after she got her HP facts wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdoD2147Fik
It was a series of behaviors, not one standardized test that drove this person into lower level classes. And she discovered that if she focused, she could do well. My goodness, take a little responsibility for your actions.
It. Is. Not. Always. As. Simple. As. "Just. Focus." For. People. With. ADHD.
Load More Replies... Oh well, oh well. People on social media telling "their story". Who would not agree that testing particularly small children without care is not wise? Who would not agree that moedern pedagogics are about individual assessments? Who would not agree that schools often fail to cater for what would make everyone learn best? Who would not agree that the educational systems tend to be underfinanced to cater for every pupil individually? But: who would not agree that yet another personal, unverifyable rant on social media is but an anecdote?
People in the comments who argue that "she shouldn't have been lazy and she clearly said she didn't bother" are honestly part of the problem to refuse to see how ADHD and other mental disabilities affect peoples attention, will and so on, it is wrong to judge after ONE bad test performance, it messed up her education because THEY choose to treat her badly, so many people can do wonders when they put effort in, but what if your very own brain stands in the way to make that effort happen? Read up on mental disabilities peeps.
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