Unlearning the fear of examination

Why do we dread examinations so much? Most students I know would love to go through school without any tests. To be honest, I think I stand with them. We fear scrutiny. But, as Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” The bottom line, if you’ve stopped thinking and started going through unexamined motions, you’ve really stopped living and started existing.

The dictionary defines examination this way:

• to inspect or scrutinize carefully: to examine a prospective purchase.
• to observe, test, or investigate (a person's body or any part of it), esp. in order to evaluate general health or determine the cause of illness.
• to inquire into or investigate: to examine one's motives.
• to test the knowledge, reactions, or qualifications of (a pupil, candidate, etc.), as by questions or assigning tasks.

Simply stated, we can conclude that examination focuses on quality, health, motives and qualification. Today let's consider quality (is it real?). In the wonderful book The Velveteen Rabbit is a conversation about being real.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

How can we truly live real, pure, genuine lives apart from examination? How easy it is for us to depart from who we really are and just exist. As teens struggle with their identity, I have often told them, "You are a Designer Original! There is no one like you and this truth makes you invaluable!"

So, let's unlearn the fear of examination; for, only when a life is examined does it truly become all it was created to be.

~ Dean Boyer

Comments

[Joanna Young]

Dean, I'm with you on the importance of the life examined. The importance of being open to learning, and feedback, and yes external scrutiny and challenge.

My problem is the unhealthy focus that we have on examinations (certainly in the UK). Getting through exams becomes the focus, not the learning. The exams are heavily geared towards academic success, not use of all our multiple intelligences.

We're not encouraging children to release their potential but showing them how they're expected to fit in, to pass our tests, however arbitrary and shoe-boxing they may seem.

I worry that our school system with its unhealthy focus on tests and exams may actually be teaching children in the long run just to learn how to get through the hoops. Many a long year might then be spent unlearning the impact of this narrow focus and relearning who they really are.

I realise this may just be my jaundiced view from the UK. Hopefully things are better in other parts of the world.

Joanna

[April Groves]

Dean - what a beautiful excerpt.

The crazy thing about myself is I have finally gotten over examining myself as a person. It was once difficult, but I have gotten to the point where I realize that it really makes me a better person.

However, I am still anxious about written, graded stuff. I turn it in and feel it is right, but I can't get over the nagging what if. But I do think testing children is important. It, like all other aspects of education need to be balanced and appropriate.

Come to think of it, unbalanced self examination can lead to poor decisions as well...

[Rosa Say]

I think we all will agree that examining self, and examining our learning for comprehension, retention and meaningfulness is terrific, however as Joanna points out, the junkiness comes when those aren’t intentionally the reasons examinations happen in schools, and it’s more of a case of auto-pilot and going through the motions. Memorization and test-cramming doesn’t do much for us … the question is how our schools can be more productive within the learning process, mentoring those who don’t have the self-motivation or discipline of the eager and willing lifelong learner. We hope for education to take a leadership role in these pursuits, but sadly it doesn’t happen enough (you are not alone with what you describe in the UK Joanna!)

In another vein, and as April has said Dean, thank you for sharing this passage; this is a book far back in memory, and it was so wonderful having you resurrect it for me!

[Ariane Benefit]

Great points everyone! Examining oneself is good in moderation...Over-examination can also make you CRAZY! : ) (I know this from personal experience!)

On the other hand, as Joanna, April, and Rosa also point out, being examined by others means being judged by their criteria...which may well be flawed and lead to many unintended consequences.

School examinations in particular are extremely difficult to create as well as to endure.

When I studied education, testing and measurement I was EXTREMELY frustrated by how difficult it is to assess learning accurately and fairly and without creating anxiety which makes students associate negativity with learning or become "study for the test" learners.

The thing is no one has come up with any kind of alternative that I know of that is easily standardizable.

In fact, the only alternatives to mainstream education and testing I know of are homeschooling, and the Montessori Method. http://www.montessori.org/

There are alternative schools like the one I went to one in the 10th grade which de-emphasized testing, but I had to be a "problem" student who dropped out of high school before I got offered this. I loved the school, but they aren't easy to find.