Where can kids go on opt out of tests days?

More and more parents are opting their children out of standardized tests. In a recent opt out group discussion, parents shared they were told that if their child attended school, but did not take the test, they would have to sit at their desks and do nothing. They would not even be allowed to read but rather sentenced to sit and stare into space.

Rather than waste children’s time, one parent asked, “Wouldn't it be amazing if there was an educational opportunity available in communities during testing days for those students who were opting out?”

Yes. Of course it would.
Why not use testing days as community learning days? It wouldn’t be that hard. Here are some ideas to get started.

Doing Their Dirty Work

In 1991 after winning his third Teacher of the Year Award, John Taylor Gatto wrote a resignation letter which he submitted to the Wall Street Journal called, “I Quit, I Think” and left his job, stating that he was “no longer willing to hurt children.” More than two decades later and our teachers are still in a catch 22. They got into this field to help children but find themselves in a system that forces them to engage in practices that, like Gatto, they know are hurting children.  Below is a guest post from one such teacher who authors The Rural Teacher blog. 

Dirty Work by Steely Dan
Times are hard
You’re afraid to pay the fee
So you find yourself somebody
Who can do the job for free
When you need a bit of lovin’
Cause your man is out of town
That’s the time you get me runnin’
And you know I’ll be around

CHORUS:
I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah
I don’t wanna do your dirty work
No more
I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah


Light the candle
Put the lock upon the door
You have sent the maid home early
Like a thousand times before
Like the castle in its corner
In a medieval game
I foresee terrible trouble
And I stay here just the same


I will admit it – I am a FOOL.


I’m a fool because I keep doing “their” dirty work. I didn’t have a NY State Exam to give, but I really didn’t do much to stop it. Sure, I post and tweet and talk, but I haven’t quit teaching. I haven’t walked out. I didn’t stay home on May Day. I didn’t even convince one parent to ‘opt out’ their child. Just as Steely Dan says, “I foresee terrible trouble, and I stay here just the same.”


The current conditions for many public school teachers are depressing. There are the whispered conversations in darkened classrooms about the “tests”. There are the veteran teachers like me who worry about ‘making it’ to retirement without being found ‘ineffective’ and losing our jobs. There are the novice teachers who grew up being tested themselves and sort of ‘roll with it’. There are principals who are opposed to the testing personally but who feel obligated to ‘do their jobs’. We all just keep doing their dirty work.
This is not an indictment in which I’m going to say that we should all walk out and if we don’t we are complicit. 


Unless you are “on the ground,” I guess you really can’t understand the Catch 22 many of us feel that we live in. 

• We don’t WANT to do the “dirty work” of giving children flawed tests created by people who don’t know a thing about child development. 
• We don’t WANT to have our students reduced to numbers. 
• We WANT to TEACH!! 
• We WANT to have joyful classrooms where every child is valued as an individual and celebrated for their uniqueness.
• We WANT to be held accountable – in fact we are often are own worst critics – rethinking and rehashing lessons that weren’t all that great. We go home and our students come home with us in our heads. We think about them. We wonder what will happen to them when they leave us in June. We hope that they will be happy and successful.

Intertwined with all of what we want professionally is what we must do for our families. For many of us, there would be no health insurance for our own children if we walked away. We wouldn’t be able to keep roofs over their heads, food on their tables, or provide any support toward higher education or technical school or whatever they dream for themselves. So many of us cannot simply walk away – it would be financial suicide.


So, what are we to do? I don’t have the answers, that’s one thing I know for sure.

Parent opts child out of field test and opts into meaningful learning

Opt Out of Field Tests

Students across the nation have been unnecessarily subjected to the most expensive and least effective assessments possible over the past few months...standardized tests. While in all cases this resulted in stolen instructional time, in many cases it was even worse and also resulted in students forced to take tests against parental will even if it meant emotional and  physical distress to the child.  


In many states the system isn't done stealing instructional time. They are now going into a round of field testing where they use children as involuntary subjects on which to experiment.  Parents should know that they DO NOT have to do this. They can opt their child out as New York City parent and teacher Veronica Vega is doing.  Below is her opt out letter which can be used as a model for other parents who value student learning.  


Dear Principal,


Please do not allow my child Steven Herrera Jr. in 5th grade to sit for any New York state field test in any subject the week of June 4-8.


My child has been subjected to excessive amounts of state standardized state testing this school year.  The tests in April consumed six days of 90 minutes each, in addition to the huge amount of time devoted to preparing for those tests.  It is unacceptable that even more valuable classroom time be allocated to state testing.  Furthermore, I object to my child being used as a guinea pig for a second time by Pearson and the State Education Department, especially as field test questions were already embedded in the April state tests, making my child a research subject for a for-profit corporation without my consent or permission.


It is my understanding that there will be no negative consequences for the school if children do not take these field tests, and make-up exams will not be given.  Therefore, I do not give permission for my child to take the June field test.


I would respectfully request that the school not give the test at all, and that all students benefit from a day of instruction rather than waste yet another day on test-taking.  If, however, the school does give the tests, I expect it to offer an alternative instructional activity for my child.


Sincerely 


Veronica Vega-Herrera


You can join parents across the nation who are opting their children out of tests and related activities in your local opt out group.  Find your states opt out group in two ways:1) Type in the search: Opt out of State Standardized Tests - Your State i.e. Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - Ohio2) Go to the page url: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutYourState i.e.https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutOhio

Read this opt out of testing letter from parent - Get ready to be inspired!

Editor's note: This amazing opt out letter was shared in The Texas Opt Out of State Tests group (there's one for every state). I'm sharing it here because it so eloquently and passionately identifies so many of the ills of standardized testing from a parent who has her child's freedom to learn as her main priority. You can find more opt out letters at the opt out of state tests site here.

Names have been changed.

Dear (school principal),
This letter is to respectfully inform you of the decision my husband and I have made to opt our children out of the 3rd grade STAAR tests on Apr. 24 and 25 and the make-up tests on Apr. 26 and 27. We understand it is Austin ISD's position that "by law there is no opt out for students" and that even though the test will not count towards school ratings this year, our children's "unexcused" absences may negatively impact the school's Adequate Yearly Progress report. We have been active, involved members of the school community, and our family has always supported the school and its many wonderful teachers, but after long and careful thought about what is best for our children and a great deal of reading on the topic of high-stakes standardized testing, we feel we must act on our convictions and engage in civil disobedience rather than be coerced into participating in a testing system that is deeply flawed morally and pedagogically, the result of corporate greed and political agendas that do not serve our children or anyone else's.

Newest Ed Reform Leader is a 12-Year-Old Opt Out Hero

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” Helen Keller

We’ve heard from a lot of heroes lately in the ed reform movement; from teachers and  parents like Chris Cerrone and Renny Fong who are stepping forward and sharing their struggles, to principals who are standing up and speaking out against the standardized testing debacle.

These are ed reform heroes. These are the people who will help empower our children with the freedom to learn; the ones who push for an education that is customized to the child rather than standardized to the system.

While these parents, teachers, and school leaders push for students’ rights to receive the education they deserve (rather than the ones politicians and corporations want), there is yet another important voice bubbling up.  

The newest heroes of the ed reform movement are the students who opt out and speak out. Their voices are both loud and proud. They are against tests that they know do not benefit them, and in many cases actually do them harm.

While there are adults who believe the education system pulls the wool over the eyes of children, many young people are also becoming wise to the standardized testing farce. Last year 5th grader Joel from Harlem wrote an essay exposing the truth about standardized testing  Then 12-year-old Anthony Hererra made a video and wrote an article explaining why he doesn’t want to take the test and thanking everyone for their support of his decision.  

Our latest hero is 12-year-old Joseph Dougherty who did his best to opt out of the standardized tests. He knows they are useless for children in general, but he has also discovered they are harmful to him in particular. They cause stress and anxiety, which leads to emotional and physical distress.  As a result Joseph’s mom informed his school principal that he would be opting out of the test and asked that he be provided with alternative activities during all the days of testing. Against the wishes of this young man and his mother, his principal, Thomas Capone, forced Joseph to take the test.

When Joseph explained he did not want to take the test, his teachers called him “a fresh little boy who needs to do what he is told.” He also knew his principal wrote an email to his mother explaining that if he didn't follow orders, he could be taken away from his mother because he'd call child protective services.

Is there such thing as a good test?

Editor’s Note: By now most people understand that standardized tests are not only harmful, but often they are also poorly constructed. But is there such thing as a good test? I was having a conversation with Cathy Earle about the subject and wondered if there is such thing as a good test. During that conversation she explained the reality is that in many cases the problem is how tests are used i.e. to assess students rather than help them learn. I asked her to say more and provide and example. Here it is and I have to admit...I rather like this kind of test.

Guest post by Cathy Earle

My daughter took a class at a local museum, the Youth Science Center. The class was a few hours each day for five days, and it was all about snakes.

The teacher introduced the first class with the words, “We're going to take a pre-test, to see how much you guys know about snakes already.” Then he passed out a multiple-choice test.

The thing is, my child never took multiple-choice tests, except a few fun quizzes in magazines. She unschools, and we didn't do lessons and assignments and tests.

Still, she gamely filled out the test and did her best.

Her best turned out to be the worst in the class.

Suffering in Silence… Standardized testing from the view of an educator & parent

Guest post by Renny Fong (TimeOutDad)

As our children are undergoing the gruel of the high stakes standardized tests in New York, I can’t help but notice the silence.  So many voices silenced.  So many stories left unheard.  Will all the time, money, and effort that has been spent on making the tests, preparing for the tests, and grading the tests make our children any better off than before these tests?  

Did these tests ask our children how they’re doing, how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, and what they care about?  Did these tests ask our children to innovate or create anything? Will these tests tell our children what their gifts and talents are?  Will these tests tell us what our children’s hopes and goals and dreams are or what their ideas are for a better today and tomorrow? Do these tests really care about our children at all?

New York Principals are Speaking Out Against Standardized Tests

This week I'm proud to be a New York educator as I watch parents, teachers, and administrators stand up and speak out about the harms and horrors of standardized tests in the media as well as the active Opt Out of Standardized Tests - New York group.  Below is an open letter from New York principals who want their voices heard about the testing atrocities going on in our schools.  If you are in New York, show this letter to your principal and encourage her/him to advocate for children.

An Open Letter to the Board of Regents Regarding High-Stakes Testing and the School Reform Agenda of New York State

 

The past week has been a nightmare for New York students in Grades 3 through 8, their teachers and their principals. Not only were the New York State ELA exams too long and exhausting for young students, (three exams of 90 minutes each), they contained ambiguous questions that cannot be answered with assurance, problems with test booklet instructions, inadequate space for students to write essays, and reading comprehension passages that defy commonsense. In addition, the press reported a passage that relied on knowledge of sounds and music which hearing-impaired students could not answer and Newsday reported that students were mechanically ‘filling in bubbles’ due to exhaustion. Certainly the most egregious example of problems with the tests is the now infamous passage about the Hare and the Pineapple.

Inform Others of the Harm of Standardized Tests with This Flyer

We are finally reaching a time when parents are standing up for the rights of their children and opting out of tests. Social media has played a great role in this where parents are able to find others from their state who are doing the same thing they are and also discover and share information and resources at sites like the Opt Out of Standardized Tests wiki. They are uniting and getting smarter about their parental right to decide what is best for their children.

Many even are stepping up and spreading the word. To that end, I have created the following double-sided, informational flyer that can be customized and simply printed out from any printer.  Hand it out in front of your school. To your school's principal, teachers etc. Sadly, many teachers and administrators know what they are being forced to do is hurting children, but if they speak up they risk losing their jobs.  They need parents and community members to do this work!

You can see the flyer below and visit and download it here.

The bad pineapple questions are not the problem with standardized tests

I am disappointed that the mainstream story about testing happens to be a poor test section about pineapples. While I agree the test question was ridiculous, I think focusing on that diverts us from the real problem which is that even if the test had greatest questions on earth, standardized testing at its core is a problem for numerous reasons.

Here are a dozen that come to mind.
1) Teachers are assessment experts. We don't need to spend 32 million on outsourcing assessments in NY alone. Billions nationwide.
2) If we believe we should differentiate instruction, then we can not standardize assessment. We must measure students where they are at.
3) Standardized tests are one of the least effective forms of diagnostic assessment.
4) Standardized tests don't provide any value to students.

9 Ways to Assess without Standardized Tests

Caine's Arcade
You don't assess innovation with bubbletests

Okay. 


You got the message. 


Standardized tests are not what's best for learning. Not only are they not best for learning, but they have become an insurmountable obstacle for innovative educators like me to do my work in schools because helping kids become good and filling in bubbles on a piece of paper is anything but innovative!

Unfortunately, many politicians, parents, and even students don’t know a world without testing and wonder...

“If we don't use standardized tests how will we measure learning, teacher effectiveness, or school effectiveness?”

When people ask me that question, I usually respond with this question:

“How do we assess learning in real life?”

Think about it, learning is rarely measured via a test in real life. For instance, as a educator I had to take a few meaningless tests that no one bothers studying for more than a decade ago but that's it. A few tests 15 years ago and not another test is required the rest of my career. Our elected officials who often impose these tests upon children so they can claim they care about learning don't take tests. My Dad who was a cinematographer never took a test. My boyfriend who is in sales doesn't take tests. My girlfriend who is a professional photographer doesn’t take tests. My best friend who owns a successful fundraising business doesn’t take tests. The reality is that for most of us, success in life has little to do with how well we can fill in bubbles.

School life, needs to take a look at real life measurement tools and consider making the school world, look more like the real world with meaningful and authentic assessment. In short, we should measure individuals by how well they do stuff rather than how well they do the meaningless work of memorize, regurgitate, and fill in bubbles on demand.

9 Ways to Assess Students without Standardized Tests

6 Actions You Can Take to Fight Harmful Testing

Wow! Parents are gaining momentum as they stand up and take back the right of their children's freedom to learn by opting out of standardized testing. If your child is being subjected to unnecessary, harmful testing I hope the stories of other parents around the country will inspire you to do what is best for your child and, "Just say no!" to standardized testing.

Check out what's been happening.

• With Test Week Here, Parents Consider the Option of Opting Out
  The New York Times takes on the issue and links to the Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - New York Group!
• Meet the Principals
  The New York Times highlights principals who are willing to publicly stand up against standardized testing!
• New York Educator & Parent Just Says No to Standardized Tests
  A New York educator and parent inspires others to opt out of standardized testing!
• 12 Most Unconventional Reasons to Opt Your Child Out of Standardized Testing
  My 12 Most article about why we shouldn’t test is #1 on the site!
• Will Richardson Opts Out
  Educator, author, international speaker Will Richardson publicly opts his children out of testing! Go Will!  Check out the post and all the great comments.
• Late-night Twitter Chat about the detriments of standardized tests
  People are not just writing and talking.  Folks are all aTwitter about opting out. Here is a conversation I was involved in with amazing educators such as Joe Bower, Will Richardson, Gary Stager, Mary Ann Reilly, John T. Spencer, and others.
• Long Island Principal threatens parent with calling Child Protective Services and FORCES child to take test
  Yep! You heard that right. A Principal in Oceanside forces a child to take a test against his mother’s will and threatens to call child protective services. I emailed this principal to inform him that HE is being watched and HE will be the one who comes under GREAT scrutiny for defying the wishes of a parent, threatening her, and forcing her child to do something that is harmful. She shared her story in the New York Opt Out group.
• A Texas parent opts out and calls her local news station
  A Texas opt out mom called her local news station who did a fantastic piece on her decision to opt out.  She shared her video in the Texas Opt Out group.

What can you do? Here are six ideas.
6 Actions Parents Can Take Against Standardized Testing

1. Opt out
   -Parents, not the government, have the right to determine what is best for their children. Opt out and stand up to the bullying and threats of anyone who forces you to do what is not right for your children.
2. Pass out
   -Pick your favorite article, stand in front of your school and pass it out to parents, families, and teachers. Or pass out this flyer which outlines the actions in this article as well as important reasons to opt out of tests.
3. Write to principals -Write any principal you know of that is forcing children to take tests against the will of parents or children, send them your favorite article and let them know that this is not what educational leaders should be doing.
4. Join an opt out group -You can join the discussion to opt out in your state in two ways.
   1) Go to Facebook and type in the search: Opt out of State Standardized Tests - Your State i.e. Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - New York
   2) Go to the page url: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutYourState i.e.https://www.facebook.com/groups/OptOutNewYork
5. Contact the press
6. -Contact your local television station and newspaper. Tell them you are opting your child out and invite them to cover the story.  
7. Contact the American Civil Liberties Union Join the Multi Family Complaint
   -The ACLU is accumulating letters regarding state testing under No Child Left Behind where schools/state have violated the rights of parents to guide their child's education. The US Supreme Court supports a parent's right to guide their child's education as an 'unwritten liberty' protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
   If you want to participate mail the following:
• An overview of your story
• Threatening letters / email or denials to school activities, graduation, and grade advancement
• Permission to join in on the ACLU complaint
• your return address
• a signature on a hard copy.


Submit to: Nina Bishop, 3065 Windward Way, Colorado Springs, CO 80917
Questions: 719-233-1508

ACLU's Nina Bishop advises,

"As parents it is imperative that we join together to regain our voice and our innate right to guide our children's education. Join us and stop the insanity of high stakes testing."

Kudos to all the pioneering parents who are mad as hell and telling schools their children are not going to take it (the test) ANYMORE!

Making a case for opting out of harmful standardized testing

Here in New York where I work everyone knows that schools shut down during the last couple weeks of April and are transformed into testing torture mills that kids are forced to enter and endure. Suddenly once vibrant classrooms are stripped of memories of learning and children's work across the year. That's all torn off the walls so children under fluorescent lights can only stare at blank walls for days on end. Technology has no place in the testing chambers. Connection to the outside world is forbidden.  There are tears and vomiting and test booklet instructions on how to handle each.  

It's the 21st century Milgram Experiment where teachers are paid to do something that at some point they realize is terribly wrong. However, like with Milgram, where teachers in training were paid to administer deadly shocks to their victims, although many are very uncomfortable administering these tests, and even though nearly all have paused and questioned this sick experiment on our children, most go through with it. There are some that do decide to give up the money they are paid to inflict such torture and pursue interests more alignment with their ethics and morals...but still the torture goes on. 

A Fundamental Principle: No Unnecessary Testing (NUT)

By Stephen Krashen | Original PDF

Summary: Do not invest 4.5 billion on new standards and tests. Instead, work on
improving the NAEP to get a picture of how our students are performing, and
continue to use teacher evaluation to evaluate individual student performance. We
should begin by cutting back testing, not adding testing.

No Unnecessary Testing (NUT) is the principle that school should include only those
tests and parts of tests that are necessary, that contribute to essential evaluation and
learning. Every minute testing and doing “test preparation” (activities to boost scores on
tests that do not involve genuine learning) is stolen from students’ lives, in addition to
costing money that we cannot afford these days.

If we accept the NUT principle, it leads to this question: Do we need yearly standardized
tests closely linked to the curriculum? Do they tell us more than teacher evaluation does?
This issue must be looked at scientifically. If, for example, standardized tests given in
every stage are shortened, given less frequently or abandoned, will student performance
be affected? Would NAEP scores be affected, or high school graduation rates, or life
success?

My prediction is that teacher evaluation does a better job of evaluating students than
standardized testing: The repeated judgments of professionals who are with children
every day is more valid that a test created by distant strangers. Moreover, teacher
evaluations are “multiple measures,” are closely aligned to the curriculum, and cover a
variety of subjects.

There is evidence supporting this view for high school students: In a study published in
2007, UC Berkeley scholars Saul Geiser and Maria Veronica Saltelices found that adding
SAT scores to high school students grades in college prep courses did not provide much
more information than grades alone, which suggests that we may not need standardized
tests at all. More recently, Bowen, Chingos, and McPherson (2009) reached similar
conclusions.

For those who argue that we need national standardized tests in order to compare student
achievement over time and to compare subgroups of students, we already have an
instrument for this, the NAEP.

The NAEP is administered to small groups of children who each take a portion of the test
every few years. Results are extrapolated to estimate how the larger groups would score.
No test prep is done, as the tests are zero stakes: There are no (or should be no)
consequences for low or high scores. Our efforts should be to improve the NAEP, not
start all over again, and go through years of fine-tuning with new instruments.

Gradually improving the NAEP will also solve the "standards" problem, as the NAEP is
adjusted to reflect competencies experts in education consider to be important.

If we are interested in a general picture of how children are doing, this is the way to do it.
If we are interested in finding out about a patient’s health, we only need to look at a small
sample of their blood, not all of it.

My predictions, however, need to be put to the empirical test. A conservative path is to
start to cut back on standardized tests, both in length and frequency, and determine if this
has any negative consequences.

A radical path is to throw everything we have out, without any evidence that it is
inadequate, and waste $4.5 billion on new standards and new tests, tests for all subjects
and to be given to every child every year.

The conservative path is the only rational option, when funds are so scarce, and it is an
essential exercise of our responsibility to students. It is also the solution to those who are
calling for a longer school year and a longer school day: less time testing and doing testprep
means more time for instruction and learning.

Bowen, W., Chingos, M., and McPherson, M. 2009. Crossing the Finish Line:
Completing College at America's Universities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Geiser, S. and Santelices, M.V., 2007. Validity of high-school grades in predicting
student success beyond the freshman year: High-school record vs. standardized tests as
indicators of four-year college outcomes. Research and Occasional Papers Series: CSHE
6.07, University of California, Berkeley. http://cshe.berkeley.edu

But How Will Kids Know? – Learning without Testing

Kate Fridkis blogs at Un-schooled and Eat the Damn Cake.

People ask me how kids will know how good they are at something without tests. It’s a question I get a lot. Possibly because I go through life saying things like, “Can you believe how many tests kids have to take? How much better would the world be if they were drinking milkshakes instead?”

Milkshakes are so good.

OK, I don’t really think kids should drink milkshakes ALL the time. But I think they’d be better off drinking them than taking tests. Especially if they are chocolate peanut butter milkshakes.

I’m a little sad right now, because my mom just gave me this huge lecture about how I need to stop drinking so much diet soda, because it’s definitely going to kill me. I don’t remember why. Calcium was involved. Maybe my bones are going to turn to dust really soon. And diet soda was my healthiest option, since water tastes completely boring to me. She doesn’t know how close I am to drinking milkshakes all the time.
(Vanilla peanut butter is pretty amazing, too. Source)

But that’s not the point.

People explain to me how important tests are, for the kids. They emphasize that part. For the kids. You know, rather than for the maniacal pleasure of power-drunk adults who think tests are hilarious? Pick C., sucker! Fill in the C bubble on #29! You know you want to! DOO IT!!!!!!!! Actually, they mean rather than for maintaining the balance of society, which, they are pretty sure, tests are also good at.

I love the question about kids and tests. Because it’s really easy to answer. Which makes me feel smart.

I say, “Do you take tests?”

They say, “Not anymore,” and smile like, “You’ve got to be kidding…”

I say, “Are you great at everything you do?”

They say, “Um…No. Obviously.” And laugh uncomfortably.

I say, “How do you know?”

Here’s what I think kids should do instead of taking tests AND drinking milkshakes: They should work on real projects. What I mean by “real” is something that has an impact on a larger world than the classroom, the teacher, or a grade. This can mean things like a brief apprenticeship with a chosen expert (it’s amazing how willing and excited adults are to accept apprentices. Everyone loves to feel that they’re doing something important enough to teach), starting a little business, or putting together an art show that will have an opening, with everyone in the community invited. It can mean a huge number of things.

Interesting things happen when kids undertake real projects. They have specific real-life models for success to emulate, they feel very responsible for their participation and production, since other people will be impacted by it, their work is often fluid, so that when they do something wrong, they can correct it without that mistake defining the outcome of the entire project. They learn skills that apply to the real world, and they often actually learn them, rather than memorizing and forgetting, because they HAVE to learn them. Just memorizing how to lay a floor or coordinate topics on a newspaper page isn’t enough. And it doesn’t really work that way in any case. Because these skills are much more comprehensive than the sets of often disconnected facts that tests require students to hold briefly in their heads.

I took a lot of tests in college. I barely remember a thing I was supposed to have learned. I apprenticed with a local artist when I was fourteen, and I remember everything she said about light, because after she said those things, I had to teach them to a class of young children. And I had to demonstrate them myself, with paint.

I spent a day as a photographer’s assistant, and I learned immediately how bad I was at standing for hours on end, and how uncomfortable I was with answering the phone for his studio. I also didn’t like hauling the garbage out back and having to order lunch for everyone. He was taking photos of dogs in giant pink satin ribbon collars, their proud owners dipping in to fluff them and hovering anxiously on the margins. I learned so much about myself that day, and I never went back. I knew exactly how bad I’d been at practically everything that happened in that environment, and while I also knew that I was interested in photography, it was clearly not the right place to learn more.

It’s really, really easy to tell when you aren’t doing something well. But that information doesn’t always cause you to want to get better. It depends what the subject is. What the project is. What the reward might be. When the reward is another good grade and a higher GPA, it’s easy for students to get good at tests without having to deal very often with how good they are at doing things in the world. And when your world is about doing well on tests, what happens when you find yourself doing something totally different? Something that requires real mastery of a subject or practical thinking or creativity? You might figure out just how to handle the situation. Or you might not know how to fail and keep going until you get it right. You might not realize what a big deal it is to be responsible for other people. you might not have learned how good you are at… life.

(I followed this dragonfly around a stream bed for an hour or more before I finally got this shot. I took a lot of terrible pictures first. And I didn’t have to answer any phones at all.)