Reply to Best test prep book for the NNAT?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If the test scores are there the kid should be in.  Period.[/quote]

That would be find if they really were objective measures...but because of the test prep, you can not trust the scores.[/quote]

So what.

An average kid with average memory and intelligence is not going to prep themselves up to the upper 90s. They just aren't.

So a smart kid manages to gain a point or two, from 95 to 97%?

Not a big deal, and certainluly not worth all this hand wringing and angst.

Likely, if they know how to work that hard they are not the ones holding back the class.

And since as many kids who qualify get in and since there is no cap, they aren't taking a single thing away from a single other student.

My kids don't prep by the way.

One is consistently in the 99.9 range for tests. The other did not qualify but scored very well.

If uou are so fixated on rumor and hearsay about how other kids got placed, then perhaps the reality is that you are insecure because your kid is at the bottom of the class or barely got in. If your kid was comfortably in the middle or at the top of the pack, this drama and nonsense would not even be on your radar.[/quote]

Not PP, but definitely a parent distressed by the rise of test prep.  It's not a matter of being the kids who "work" hard when the parents are pushing them to prep.  I can't imagine there is a kid out there asking for a book to prepare them for a test in 1st or 2nd grade.

My concern, in addition to the inequity the prep industry creates, is what it does to education and the culture of learning in this area.  I don't want to raise  a lot of little test takers and I'm saddened to see more and more kids in my children's classes who have been pressured from a young age to practice problems and do workbooks and study, study, study.  I don't think it teaches kids to love learning for the sake of learning, rather it fosters a means to an end attitude.  In addition, it ups the pressure on everyone and creates this false sense that if you're not two years ahead in math or reading at a college level in 2nd grade, say, you're behind.  Forget that even super smart kids don't have the mental maturity to truly understand a lot of what they're learning, reading, whatever.  It's ironica that at the same time you see Koreans, for example, complaining about the psychological fallout from their pressure cooker academics, we seem desperate to ape what they're doing.   Sadly, I expect it will take a generation or so, perhaps today's kids growing up and breaking down, before parents lighten up and get smart about this.

Life is a journey, not a race.  [/quote]

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