When I walked
around the corner to get to the school, with some surprise, I saw vans of different
television channels. For a moment I imagined the worst, Had ocurred an
accident?, Was there an order to close the school?, Had someone appeared dead
inside one of the classrooms?, had a kid committed suicide?
I ran as
fast as I could and when I was crossing the street, a mother pointed me with
her finger and in a second I had a
camera on my face and a microphone
touched my nose.
-He is a
teacher of this school, he can talk about it...
I felt
panic!, perhaps they would know that I am against the text books?, another
mother grabbed me by the arm and began to talk so fast, that it made me feel like
in a supersonic airplane, she told me that a large group of parents was against
the application of the State tests because they caused too much stress to children
and those tests did not count to the academic
notes of students, so parents were considered them “unnecessarily stressful”.
I wanted
to hug this mother for thinking of the good of her child and not only accepting
what everyone thinks that it is right for her child. When I was ready, I asked
the reporter to tell me what was his question before recording:
-Is it
true that State Tests do not count for the academic evaluations of children?
It is
true, nor evaluate knowledge, or understanding, the test is intended to analyze
the memory capacity of the students.
-Do you
agree with the boycott proposed by parents?
I don't
have enough information from the protestants, but it seems to me that if
parents have something to say about the education of their children, we must
listen to them.
-What
happens if a student refuses to answer the exam?
Probably he
or she will suffer disciplinary action.
Parents
began to speak out at that moment and defended the right that parents have over
their children's education, and if the tests cause them stress and this
experience is not going to yield academically...
What a heck?!, I think their argument is pretty solid, I had never heard
parents defending the right to refuse a test. That is not something that is seen
every day.
I hope
more voices to rise because this demand
is not absurd. Perhaps are we putting our children's education in hands that
only see the numbers and not their minds?