Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2003-01-20 04:07 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2003-01-20 04:07 pm
Standardized testing
When Narcissa and I were little fayoumi, they had the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, or ITBS tests, every year. Every year, of course, we would ace them, coming back in the highest percentiles. I remember being disappointed that there was nothing higher than 99.
When Narcissa was in the 4th grade or so, she did a speech for the speech contest on the ITBS tests, thinking up all the different things that ITBS could stand for, and using them liberally throughout her speech. "It's Totally Boring Stuff"; "I Taste Breaded Spinach".
We called it TCBY testing, to ourselves, actually. That was the only other thing that we were familiar with that was a severe local bunch of letters that didn't make much sense unless you knew what they stood for. One of us called it TCBY testing to ourselves, and thought it was silly, and then, I'm pretty sure that what happened was that FatherSir heard it and thought it was a good idea: go test the things that TCBY had! The extra inconvenience in school (plus the annoyance of not learning anything and taking the pointless tests) meant that Mama and FatherSir would try and be extra nice at home, and that was a good way to do it.
It never did occur to me that some kids found ITBS week hard. Why would they? I didn't. I was only an average student (the GT class didn't mean much to me other than I got to go to the GT room and play fun games and do other stuff, and would miss important stuff in class like fractions); surely I wasn't that much smarter than everyone else.
When Narcissa was in the 4th grade or so, she did a speech for the speech contest on the ITBS tests, thinking up all the different things that ITBS could stand for, and using them liberally throughout her speech. "It's Totally Boring Stuff"; "I Taste Breaded Spinach".
We called it TCBY testing, to ourselves, actually. That was the only other thing that we were familiar with that was a severe local bunch of letters that didn't make much sense unless you knew what they stood for. One of us called it TCBY testing to ourselves, and thought it was silly, and then, I'm pretty sure that what happened was that FatherSir heard it and thought it was a good idea: go test the things that TCBY had! The extra inconvenience in school (plus the annoyance of not learning anything and taking the pointless tests) meant that Mama and FatherSir would try and be extra nice at home, and that was a good way to do it.
It never did occur to me that some kids found ITBS week hard. Why would they? I didn't. I was only an average student (the GT class didn't mean much to me other than I got to go to the GT room and play fun games and do other stuff, and would miss important stuff in class like fractions); surely I wasn't that much smarter than everyone else.
no subject
no subject