Testing Doesn't Cure Ignorance

The U.S. has had standardized testing for thirty years. Still our nation is plagued by ignorance. Let's start with the recent adventures of the SAE fraternity. First there was the good old white boy songs on the bus. Some of those white boys were even on the back of the bus. Now these were students at the University of Oklahoma. One would guess they had passed a few tests to get into that school.  But those passing tests didn't seem to prevent them from being ignorant as a do do bird. The National office of the fraternity could not imagine what came over the boys in this clearly errant chapter. Yet more chapters kept popping up with similar transgressions. Testing sure didn't cure this ignorance.

Then there are those pesky parking signs that attempt to reserve parking spaces for people with physical disabilities. Those are for people with physical disabilities but did you ever notice how many  folks with character disabilities like insensitivity and entitlement park there. It takes a person who uses a wheelchair seven to ten minutes to get that chair out of the car and functional. When a person uses a wheelchair for mobility there is no "jumping " in the car and just running to the store for milk, toilet tissue and bread when snow has been forecast. Those more physically abled people probably passed a lot of tests.  The testing didn't cure them of their ignorance.

Starbucks and USA Today are trying to get people to talk about why we can't get along in a program called Race Together. If you get a Starbucks coffee you could see that written on your cup. The idea is to get people to talk to each other. They want people to hear the other person's story. Maybe even go into each other's home. No testing, just talking. Maybe that will help.

We surely know testing doesn't cure ignorance, maybe talking together will.