Creating tests for high school students is silly. I recently discovered that if I want every kid in class to pass, then I can just construct a test which will allow every kid to pass. At the same time, I could just as easily construct a test which 90% of the kids will fail. How manipulative.

The real problem, though, is not assessment. It's making sure kids have the skills that will take them successfully through life, not necessarily the skills that No Child Left Behind thinks they should have.

My kids are smarter than most, on account of the lives that they lead. They are survivors. I can't teach them how to survive since they're already experts. Which leaves me with the unenviable task of teaching them quality and beauty, two ideas which are completely unassessable and rather difficult to lesson-plan.

Step one: Attempt to teach quality and beauty
Step three: Successful graduates
Commentary: Damnit!

So now I'm a teacher and I'm responsible for a bunch of high school kids. I have to make sure they know how to read and write, but I'm fortunate in this area since it's the elementary teachers who really do the bulk of the work. The other thing I'm responsible for, at least in my own humble estimation of things, is figuring out some way to turn these kids into critical thinkers on a regular basis. This is the real crux of the issue. I believe, and always have, that critical thinking comes from strong reading and writing skills. The most difficult thing is to build up these kid's reading and writing skills. Nearly every kid I've ever met can read or write in some capacity, and there are even a few who read and write well - no small feat given the amount of social promotion that seems to be going on. But how exactly do you teach someone to read and write well? I can give them great books and read them with the kids. I can teach them grammar, and I can let them write what they know, but how can I encourage them to want to do a good job at these things? At this point, I think it's a mystery.

In Shakespeare In Love whenever they ask Mr. Fennyman how he knows that things will turn out okay, he always replies, "I don't know. It's a mystery." I hate to say it but I think education is the same way. You throw a bunch of stuff at kids, help them when they need it and sometimes even when they don't, and pester them when you can, and hope it all comes together at the end. It's a tricky business with little that is tangible, which by the by makes standards and testing all the more ironic. It's a wonder to me that more educators aren't devoutly religious - I'm already dealing with my own mystery of faith here. I hope it all turns out okay in the end.