Exploration Three: Literacy events and opposing issues from Rachel Hopper

     I have had a few literacy events since being on this campus.  One of them was reading the Common Book which was The Glass Castle by: Jeannette Walls.  This book was a memoir that recounted a unconventional, dysfunctional family that was living in poverty.  This book helped me realize that we all struggle.  It also taught me how to express that struggle.  I never really opened up about struggling.  It was all kept to myself.  I never spoke about it.  I never wrote about it, not even in a journal or a scrap piece of paper that would later be thrown away.  This book showed me that I could put my struggles in words, whether there was an audience or if the audience was solely me.  It helped me emotionally and encouraged me to write in general.  Now I keep a journal and write in it at least twice a week.  Sometimes I will write about myself or something that I had notice.  I will often write down quotes of people I look up to.  Since music is such a major part of my life, there is plenty of it in my journal as well.  If I hear a song, I may write down the lyrics.  I have a couple playlists written down as well.  I even taped some photos in there.  My journal is just one huge compilation of the little things that make me who I am.  I think every one needs to have something like that.

     Issues of policy is when we question what we should do and what things we could implement in order to reach a goal.  An example of this would be the one I have written about in the next paragraph, which is finding faults in standardized testing.  What are the cause and effects of the overwhelming amount of testing?  What solution could we offer to balance teaching, learning, and testing?  Should the government be heavily involved or should they relinquish some control? 

     The issue that has really caught my attention is standardized testing in early childhood, middle, and high school education.  I understand the purpose of standardized testing but I feel like it has become too much to the point where it hinders learning in general.  I still think there should be standardized testing in order to ensure that everyone gets the same education but I feel that it should be done differently.  I feel that it inhibits true teaching and learning.  Taking a class with one of the professors here at Ohio State Marion has shown me what learning is like for the sake of learning.  That experience makes me want to learn so much more and I can honestly say that I have learned so much more because of it.  I volunteered for elementary and middle school and many times I have seen teachers get so overwhelmed with it and they end up "teaching the test" (for lack of a better phrase) and not teach the subject matter as a whole.  I have often seen that students could feel immense pressure to succeed. Therefore, they will just study solely what material will be on the test, like a study guide, instead of studying the subject material as a whole.  Other students may get so frustrated that they just give up and not understand the true purpose of learning and resent learning in general.  I think there should be a balance with testing.  Everyone deserves the same education, but they deserve to experience the wonder of learning as well.

I think we should change the way we implement standardized testing.