Quickie ...

Today starts three days of testing for all New York State 4th Graders. Yes, I mean Little Squid. He is nervous but we got him laughing -- we reminded him that he is obviously brilliant. After all, how many Squid can ride a bike. Most of them get their tentacles all tangles in the spokes. And, from the Little one himself, how many Squid can play a violin.

I started preparing a rant on how these exams are used but I may never post it. Simply put, as both a parent and an educator I understand why the exams are given, I just object to how long it takes to get the results (9 months for last year's exams) and how the results are used (middle and high school admissions over a year later in the case of the 4th and 7th grade exams). Using results that are over a year old for the purpose of deciding where a kid can go to school seems very wrong to me.

Off to stick a little something extra in Little Squid's lunch box ...