This is Just a Test!
"I hated it when my teachers did that! It was so unfair," I hear that statement or similar ones pretty frequently in social situations. Sometimes it's awkward. Someone will say, "I hated it when my teachers punished the whole class for what one person did."
How am I supposed to respond to that? I'm guilty of the thing this other person just declared that he hates. What's worse is that I used to be just like him and think the same thing -- until I became a teacher. Now I know. Things aren't always what they seem to be.
People are particularly nasty when it comes to talking about tests or as we call them now "assessments." Nobody likes being tested; it's a lot of pressure. You are judged, graded, and evaluated. Most of the time the results are less than favorable. I have heard, more than once, teachers say things to students along these lines, "I wish we didn't have to have tests, that we could just learn, but that's not the way it is." When teachers told me that as a student the accompanying tone always suggested that the test wasn't a good idea in general but a chore that needed to be done. Additionally, until I became a teacher myself, I never understood the connection between learning and being tested. Now I realize there is a connection, a really strong one.
In our culture of teacher accountability and high stakes testing, I'm about to throw out a radical statement. I find in real practice that tests are really not for teachers but are for learners.
The truth that often gets overlooked is that most often a test is meant to reveal the student's learning to the student. In my experience, I intuitively know how well most of my students are doing. Sometimes I am surprised by student performance on a test or assignment, but not usually.
Have you ever been in a situation where you just knew you were going to ace a test? You walk into the classroom, take the test, and saunter out confidently. Then a few days later the test gets returned to you, and you see a glaring F right on the front of it. Ouch. You thought you knew, but you were mistaken. You weren't as knowlegeable as you thought: the test showed you the truth about yourself.
Not only do we have a skewed idea about tests in the classroom but we also fail to see that tests don't stop coming at us when our school days are over. Real life, everyday things are tests. They can show us what we are really like. How did you react the last time you got stuck in traffic? Your reaction to that situation can uncover some truth about yourself.
Unfortunately none of us like tests in real life any better than we did the ones of the classroom variety. Tests are generally unpleasant experiences. All this has been on my mind in the last week or so for two reasons. First, it's almost time to go back to school, so I've got teaching on the brain. Second, I have been feeling strongly tested in my daily life of late.
For a long time now I've been able to appreciate the genius of Jesus as a teacher. I believe that Jesus is the perfect son of God, which makes him the best model for learning how to teach. If you read through the gospels, you'll see him throwing out tests right and left. I believe he already knew everything about each person he encountered. He didn't need to test them so he could see what they'd do. It seems to me that every test was aimed squarely at what each person needed to know about herself.
Let me provide an example here. Remember in the gospels when Jesus has huge crowds following him and they're out in the middle of nowhere. A debate always comes up between him and the disciples about how they're going to feed all these people. Jesus is God, so he's already got it all figured out. He is able to fix any problem, but the disciples, they don't know what's going on. So he tests them a little bit. He says, "You give them something to eat." Then the disciples start scrambling around trying to figure out how they're going to round up enough money or supplies to feed a mob. The text doesn't tell us how long the test lasted, but it had to be long enough for them to scrounge up a few loaves and fishes.
So what's the point? If Jesus is going to use a miracle to feed the people, and he already knows that, why the test? He wanted to show the disciples a truth, something they hadn't already learned. They weren't capable of tackling these huge problems without him. On their own they couldn't do anything. He wanted to show them what he could do if they let him. (Matt. 14:15-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17)
Read through the gospels for yourself, and you'll see many more examples of Jesus challenging people with questions and demands, all in an attempt to help them better understand who he is and who they are.
He's still doing the same thing now. He's still alive and at work in all our lives. I certainly have felt tested here lately, and the "assessment results" I've seen aren't exactly giving me the warm and fuzzies.
The latest controversy about educational spending in my state isn't exactly comforting. The public school arena has developed an atmosphere or instability and uncertainty. I'm a teacher. My livelihood depends on decisions made by government officials, which is terrifying. I find that it's a test. It's as if God is saying, "Well, I've called you to do this thing, so you're just going to have to trust me to provide." If I were in the kind of strong spiritual position I'd like to think I'm in, then I would be trusting in the first place. So the struggles with my job serve to point out something more important in my soul -- a lack of faith.
It isn't just my vocation. There are tons of other things in my life that are challenging me right now, and even though it doesn't feel like it, I know that eventually all the things I'm suffering through will be resolved in the best possible way because of God's care and concern. (Rom. 8:28) So I see that I've got to do what I ask my own students to do -- accept the reflection of myself and be willing to work on learning and growing some more.
How am I supposed to respond to that? I'm guilty of the thing this other person just declared that he hates. What's worse is that I used to be just like him and think the same thing -- until I became a teacher. Now I know. Things aren't always what they seem to be.
People are particularly nasty when it comes to talking about tests or as we call them now "assessments." Nobody likes being tested; it's a lot of pressure. You are judged, graded, and evaluated. Most of the time the results are less than favorable. I have heard, more than once, teachers say things to students along these lines, "I wish we didn't have to have tests, that we could just learn, but that's not the way it is." When teachers told me that as a student the accompanying tone always suggested that the test wasn't a good idea in general but a chore that needed to be done. Additionally, until I became a teacher myself, I never understood the connection between learning and being tested. Now I realize there is a connection, a really strong one.
In our culture of teacher accountability and high stakes testing, I'm about to throw out a radical statement. I find in real practice that tests are really not for teachers but are for learners.
The truth that often gets overlooked is that most often a test is meant to reveal the student's learning to the student. In my experience, I intuitively know how well most of my students are doing. Sometimes I am surprised by student performance on a test or assignment, but not usually.
Have you ever been in a situation where you just knew you were going to ace a test? You walk into the classroom, take the test, and saunter out confidently. Then a few days later the test gets returned to you, and you see a glaring F right on the front of it. Ouch. You thought you knew, but you were mistaken. You weren't as knowlegeable as you thought: the test showed you the truth about yourself.
Not only do we have a skewed idea about tests in the classroom but we also fail to see that tests don't stop coming at us when our school days are over. Real life, everyday things are tests. They can show us what we are really like. How did you react the last time you got stuck in traffic? Your reaction to that situation can uncover some truth about yourself.
Unfortunately none of us like tests in real life any better than we did the ones of the classroom variety. Tests are generally unpleasant experiences. All this has been on my mind in the last week or so for two reasons. First, it's almost time to go back to school, so I've got teaching on the brain. Second, I have been feeling strongly tested in my daily life of late.
For a long time now I've been able to appreciate the genius of Jesus as a teacher. I believe that Jesus is the perfect son of God, which makes him the best model for learning how to teach. If you read through the gospels, you'll see him throwing out tests right and left. I believe he already knew everything about each person he encountered. He didn't need to test them so he could see what they'd do. It seems to me that every test was aimed squarely at what each person needed to know about herself.
Let me provide an example here. Remember in the gospels when Jesus has huge crowds following him and they're out in the middle of nowhere. A debate always comes up between him and the disciples about how they're going to feed all these people. Jesus is God, so he's already got it all figured out. He is able to fix any problem, but the disciples, they don't know what's going on. So he tests them a little bit. He says, "You give them something to eat." Then the disciples start scrambling around trying to figure out how they're going to round up enough money or supplies to feed a mob. The text doesn't tell us how long the test lasted, but it had to be long enough for them to scrounge up a few loaves and fishes.
So what's the point? If Jesus is going to use a miracle to feed the people, and he already knows that, why the test? He wanted to show the disciples a truth, something they hadn't already learned. They weren't capable of tackling these huge problems without him. On their own they couldn't do anything. He wanted to show them what he could do if they let him. (Matt. 14:15-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17)
Read through the gospels for yourself, and you'll see many more examples of Jesus challenging people with questions and demands, all in an attempt to help them better understand who he is and who they are.
He's still doing the same thing now. He's still alive and at work in all our lives. I certainly have felt tested here lately, and the "assessment results" I've seen aren't exactly giving me the warm and fuzzies.
The latest controversy about educational spending in my state isn't exactly comforting. The public school arena has developed an atmosphere or instability and uncertainty. I'm a teacher. My livelihood depends on decisions made by government officials, which is terrifying. I find that it's a test. It's as if God is saying, "Well, I've called you to do this thing, so you're just going to have to trust me to provide." If I were in the kind of strong spiritual position I'd like to think I'm in, then I would be trusting in the first place. So the struggles with my job serve to point out something more important in my soul -- a lack of faith.
It isn't just my vocation. There are tons of other things in my life that are challenging me right now, and even though it doesn't feel like it, I know that eventually all the things I'm suffering through will be resolved in the best possible way because of God's care and concern. (Rom. 8:28) So I see that I've got to do what I ask my own students to do -- accept the reflection of myself and be willing to work on learning and growing some more.
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