Today at Five Minute Free Write Friday (and for the 31 Days of Writing Challenge), the theme is TEST.
Throughout my life, I have had to take hundreds of tests – for so many reasons:
Spelling tests
End of unit or term tests
Eye exams
Medicals
Driving tests
SSATS
University exams
Pregnancy tests
Then, as a teacher, I gave tests, hundreds of those as well, having to prepare, administer and mark for my students.
Now, tests are more likely those fun personality ones on facebook, although I still need yearly eye and medical tests.
The tests that I have hated were those imposed by EQAO for grades 3 and 6 here in Ontario.
I remember the first year they began. Then , it was two weeks of testing in reading, writing and mathematics. The children haqd to sit for long periods of time, not talking and getting no support from me. One little girl’s words still haunt me: “But you’re a teacher. You’re supposed to help me.”
One of the key reasons I decided to retire, after 30+ years, was the politics that had sucked the joy out of teaching for me, especially the EQAO testing.
Beverley A Baird 
Bev, I hear you. Politics killed teaching for me.
Grading tests was always a test for me; I sometimes felt I learned more than the munchkins. (I taught college and grad-level engineering…and they were still munchkins.)
#2 at FMF this week.
https://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2016/10/your-dying-spouse-216-lethal-legacy-fmf.html
Thanks so much for stopping by. I still miss teaching but it was the right move at the right time.