Six Week Test

Six Week Tests

When I was in school, our teachers gave us comprehensive tests every six weeks for evaluation and diagnosis. They checked to see what we had learned and what we needed to learn. The tests focused on math, science, language arts and social studies. Even the best students dreaded these tests. Six weeks is a long time.

I will never forget one novice teacher, who, using new pedological strategies, seated us in the order of our scoring on the test: highest scorer, first seat, first row; lowest scorer, last seat, last row. I will not tell you where I sat. 

In school, we were always being rated and sorted by test scores. We rated and sorted ourselves by these scores and others of our own making. Some of our ratings were not so good. Some of our sorting was awful. 

School is about learning. We learn academics and we learn about living. We learn that some are more successful than others. We learn that some are popular and some get left behind. We learn that ratings can sort us and that sorting can hurt us.

Some of us never stop rating ourselves and others based on the scores we earn in school, in business, in society, and in culture. We rate others by how much money they make, how much power they have, how many things they own. We rate ourselves by the same standards. Ratings and sorting can still hurt us.

What if, every six weeks, we changed the testing parameters? What if, instead of rating our knowledge, our salaries, or our status, we rate our happiness, our generosity, our compassion? What if we changed the scale for success?

Am I happier than I was six weeks ago? What can I do to be happier? What’s the best thing I’ve done in the last six weeks? What have I done to help others? What goals have I met, set, abandoned, or revised? What steps am I taking to make my life, my family’s life, my workplace, my community, my country, my world a better place? How did I react when I succeeded or didn’t succeed? How did my actions impact others?

We face tests for living every day. How we face these tests is more important than what score we get. Am I kind? Do I help or hurt? Do I keep going or give up? Am I trustworthy? Do I work for or against fairness, justice, and peace? Do I consider the feelings and situations of others before judging them? Do I rate and sort others on the same scale I would want them to rate and sort me? 

Just as our teachers did, we need to stop, at least every six weeks if not daily, to evaluate what we have learned and what we need to learn. We must learn not to seat others by the artificial scores of the world. We must get up, walk the length of the room and offer a helping hand. We learn better when we work together.