Every Emotion Imaginable

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As the week of testing approaches for my students, I had a fellow teacher come up to me and ask "What do you wish someone had said to you about the SOL's."  I gave some quick and true responses, but now that I have had a chance to digest it all, here are my more detailed answers to that question

I wish someone had told me....
  • that I would feel every emotion I ever had, in just one day.
  • it's okay to cry
  • it's also okay to celebrate
  • there is nothing else you can do at this point.  
  • your heart rate will return to a normal level in about three days
  • in the mean time, try to do some yoga.  
  • watching student reactions is funny/entertaining/sad/painful
  • this whole process is really jacked up
The list could go on and on, but these were the ones I felt the strongest about.  I want to elaborate on a few; I imagine my teacher friends will fully understand these but I want the non-teacher people reading this to get a sense of the statement.

"...that I would feel every emotion I ever had, in just one day."

This statement is the hardest.  You have the sole responsibility of telling each student you teach if they passed or failed.  They will celebrate the success of passing, they will be crushed and hurt when they find out they failed by just two points, and some just will not care because they knew they failed already.  So much pressure is put on these students by these tests, it is incredible.  I would compare it to a court case where the judge is reading the sentencing.  It has a very similar feel.

"there is nothing else you can do at this point."

Not only this, but you should NOT do anything else at this point.  Do not look at the computer, do not touch the computer, do not say anything outside of the testing booklet you are given, do not talk about the test in any way shape or form, and especially do NOT look at the questions.  In fact, I might even get in some slight trouble talking about the things I cannot talk about!  Ridiculous.

"this whole process is really jacked up."

My pastor had a sermon series this year called "Chasing The Wind".  It was a wonderfully done in-depth look at Ecclesiastes, most notably what King Solomon had to say about life.  The first verse of Ecclesiastes 1 starts off with 

(2) Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.  (3) What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? (4) A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.  -Ecclesiastes 1-2:4
Well is this not the most chipper of statements to make to the congregation? He had a point though; vanity is associated with "meaningless", and that is the feeling i have toward the test.  We have to be striving toward something greater in our lives, and while he was making use believing in Jesus as his conclusion, mine is that the students need to view this as vanity compared to their life.  It is one small test and yes, does have a lot of weight, but will not determine their future success.  It will only allow them to graduate from high school to then achieve their success.  It does not tell them how smart they actually are or how creative they are, it simply tells them they did enough to check a box on their graduation requirement sheet.

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