The Negative Consequences Of Standardized Mind

As the world famous scientist Albert Einstein once said, “ Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” (Investigator). The same idea goes for many children across the world. Everyone has different interests, hobbies and talents just as a fish can swim a whole lot better than a monkey, however that monkey can climb a tree as where the fish cannot. Millions of children are trying to climb that tree all across the United States, and many of them happen to be fish. That tree happens to be standardized testing, a tree that had been planted into American society a little under 100 years ago and, ever since, has been the tool schools and colleges use to evaluate …show more content…
As the result, these two topics have been drilled into minds of students in every state, as well has also caused other “less important” topics to be pushed out of the way. Topics like Art, Music, Sports, and even more, have all been reduced and limited in the nation's school system. What are the consequences? Many call it a “Standardized Mind”, unfortunately these minds are forced to eat, think and breath math and reading, and more than likely lack in some of the most important social skills. Leadership, creativity, and higher level thinking are three that are extremely important in life but yet are not tested on, and in reality are killed by these standardized tests. “Standardized exams offer fewer opportunities to display attributes of higher order thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity” states Sacks, the Author of the book Standardized Minds, proving that these qualities are not tested on and are “drowned out” of the nation's curriculum. Even if they were tested on, these skill could not work with the multiple choice format we see today and most definitely could not be measured by one-shot tests (Henningfeld 19). “Standardized test, if used, should only be to measure a subset of goals of education, motivation to learn, and the ability to apply what students learn in school in real life situations” says Daniel Koretz, a professor at Harvard graduate school of education. However, these tests have been determinates of student’s futures, are are used when dealing with college admissions because they offer the illusion of qualities that we associate with success and value. A wrong set of values based on two very narrow subjects that do not involve any kind of higher-level thinking, on a multiple choice standardized tests. Basing a student's future on a single tests also known as “high stake testing” has a chance to completely hold back a person, and is