My letter

I am Trista Robinson from a little town in North Carolina. I am a student at UNCP working towards a Bachelors Degree in teaching, and I hope to impress positive futures in millions of students including my own two children.
My opinion on testing is a little different. The book that my class is studying is Teachers, Schools and Society by David Miller Sadker, Myra Pollack Sadker, and Karen R. Zittleman. My book stated, "Results of state and national tests, from the state subject matter tests needed for graduation to the SATs, influence what is taught in schools." I feel testing is relevant but a little overrated. I don't feel we should base a child's 12 years of school on some standardized test. According to the website, " http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/ " "At grade 3 they take their 1st pretest within the 1st 3 weeks of school." Now I do agree and feel this is a great way to see were these students stand. I feel grades 3-8 should be setting these students up for high school and high school should be setting these students up for college as well as life in general. I don't agree with allowing these test to influence what we as teachers teach, why should these test influence what we teach our children? I feel once they get to high school they should be offered subjects that can help them be successful in life and college.
I feel schools should offer courses to teach children what to say during an interview. Teach these children how to focus on their positives and how to do so without getting so nervous they throw away a perfect opportunity. We could teach these children how to dress, how to present themselves, how to talk and what to talk about with the person authorizing the interview. Also, I think we couild offer classes that teach children how to manage bills, balance check books and other finances. I know we offer business law classes but they don't really teach what we need. I took a business law class and i couln't tell you what it was about if I tried. Maybe if we teach these kids how hard it is to pay bills , buy clothes, pay car payments and familiarize them with these things they wouldn't be so eager to move out and have kids. I feel these kids need to know more than 'r+s=q' or what's the square root of 45. I personally don't see how problems like this will help set our children up for sucess, it didn't help me in my future after high school. I couldn't tell you 1 time I had to actually use things like that.
My book also stated,"Students around the nation study from the same books, do the same excersises and are expected to master the same material." If students around the nation are practicing the same studies we could offer a SAT class thats mandatory for them to take, like an elective. Instead of spending 12 years of their little lives going over material that will more likely not be needed throughout life. I also feel like we should promote more religion than we do. If we can spend a whole month on African American history why can't we set aside a month on God? What more important for our kids to be researching?
Personally I would have liked to been able to learn things like; What do I say during an interview, How do I make one paycheck last, or why do I need college? I feel that if we could make a Bible class to help children understand we could make an improvement in our nations schools. Isn't that what we want? Test scores are dropping, children are having children and religion is taken out of schools. What are we missing? I feel if we could offer some classes that teach these kids how tough and expensive life is, hopefully, they will focus more on EOG scores and college instead of getting married, moving out and working at Hardee's. I feel like courses like mechanics, welding and drafting are "goof off" classes. If students plan to choose one or theother for a profession then thats what they should take in college. We could repalce courses like these with some of the courses I have mentioned.
In conclusion, i attened a public school here in North Carolina and I really wish I would have had some of the courses i mentioned offered to me. When i was in high school all I wanted to do was get my own place, pay my own bills, and live with my boyfriend and thats exactly what I did. Now I'm married with 2 children, living pay check to pay check and gtrying to finish college and work. After I had my children i went back to college in order to set a positive example and provide better for them.
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