Standardized Testing

Yong Zhao, a professor at Michigan State University, said, “Education should focus on developing children’s strengths, not “fixing their deficiencies.”’ Children need to focus on what they’re passionate about. Zhao reinforced this concept throughout his speech. If students continue to be pushed to learn something that they don’t like, then they will lose passion. This will eliminate the diversity. Zhao said, “This would eliminate people like Michael Phelps because he can’t read.” In other words, Zhao wants to keep art and music classes because everyone is talented in something; not everyone is good at math—maybe they’re good at history. Zhao also mentioned that schools have mandatory national tests on two subjects, which are math and science. This ignores other classes like history and English. It’s basically telling everyone that only math and science are important. Lastly, Zhao exclaimed, “Education is not a business; it should be faith based like a church!” Zhao went on to say, “We need to preserve the dreams of a child.”