Emphasis needs to shift from testing of subjects in this manner to the mastery of subjects. When students are free to learn and experiment without fear of failure, they are more likely to have an easier time at learning and retain more ability over the long-term. Reading the Stanford News article How the Finnish school system outshines U.S. education I can see the positive effects of such an approach to education. A number of factors are at play in Finland to account for this success, but one of them is the lack of testing. Children are not measured at all until six years into their education and only have one standardized test when they are 16 years old according to an article in the Business Insider. Rather, they are "focused on critical thinking and problem solving, project-based learning, and learning to learn" according to Linda Darling-Hammond, in the aforementioned Stanford News article. Such a skill-set would enable someone to excel in almost any environment.
Leaning to learn... what a powerful tool to actually give to students.
Agreed. Learning to learn is really the fundamental building block to education. I know from personal experience that learning how to do self-study is just as important as the actual studying that takes place. In language studies, for example, I had to learn how to build up to doing multiple hours of "head in a book," and had to be patient in that process and not burn myself out. It's amazing how you can train your mind the same way you would any other muscle of your body. Young learners are especially fragile and are easily molded, so it is out responsibility as adults and as educators to give new students the essentials that will carry them through their most formative years, all the while being mindful not to carefully monitor the formation of bad habits. I enjoyed this short, concise post. High five
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