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Learning Celebration
He says
That in here,
We celebrate learning
Release the stress
Do your best
It's a learning celebration
So don't call it a test
This is about celebrating what you have learned
Rather than proving what you don't know
So of course, I study for hours
Rereading notes,
Rewrite them,
Annotate them,
Worship them
Even though I see this classroom as nearly sacred
It is still in the school
In school we'll sit in classrooms
And be told how to think
And what to believe
So even the ones that don't
Are held to the same standard
And retain the same reputation
We are told that
We need to know
The answer to every question on the test
Or
How to find it
So when these classes are still seen as classes
No matter how much we clean our glasses
What are we supposed to think?
The answer was never taught to me
How are we supposed to perceive
This difference?
My brain is malfunctioning
A learning celebration is formatted the same as a test
It goes in the gradebook the same
If we don't change the meaning
Why change the name?
He doesn't tip toe around answers
And connects it to the reputation held in our brains
Says if it eases us for a second
It's done its job
If we believe we can for one second
And then determine we can't
Does that change our original probability
Or does it just change our stance?
With the popularity of standardized tests
Will these learning celebrations really help us do our best?
Is it more important to know what we do or don't know?
In
World
How do we
Great
How do we
C) Clearly
And not
D) Grade
Ourselves
When we're so focused on our GPA?
Isn't education something to celebrate?
In a country
Where we are free to learn
You think we wouldn't be so trapped
In our standards
You wouldn't think it'd be so unusual
To be happy with what you were able to learn
Rather than be upset
That you missed 2 or 3 or 5 questions
You wouldn't think that some would be upset
By earning anything less than a 100%
If schools are for growing
Why do we expect people to grow at the same rate?
We have proven that that's not true before
You can even analyze our brains
If we don't think the same
Then we don't learn the same
And anything learned
Should be something
That we shouldn't
Stress about
but
B) Celebrate
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This poem is very directly inspired by one of my teachers who doesn’t believe in calling assessments tests. He will only ever call it a learning celebration and I often think about it.