I have currently finished the book The Taker. It is about a girl that gets a very low score on the SATs, and she is pressured into taking it again because the score she receives is not anywhere high enough for her to be considered for Princeton, a school where everyone in her family has gone. Because of this, she decides to get someone known by the name of The Taker to take her SATs for her. I think that the schooling system needs to be changed.
I think the schooling system should be changed because not everyone has the same type of learning. The way that all of our teachers have taught me in all 8 years of my education has all been the same. They all treat us as if we are the same. You might give one kid an essay, and they can have it done in an hour with it being worded beautifully. However, not everyone has that gift. Some students would do much better at doing something more creative because others have a hard time with things like that. The way schools are taught suggests that all of us are the same.
Secondly, this book made me question the schooling system. One of my top choices for High Schools are Beacon, and this is because of the way they do their admissions. I understand the point of standardized tests, but I dont feel like you can record someones intelligence based on that. Beacon asks for samples of your writing and then they have a conversation with you about it. They care more about getting to know you as a person than your test grades and how intellectual you are and things like that. Not everyone is an amazing test taker, and that shouldn't be what decides how intelligent someone is. For example, Carly scored 2200 without the help of the Taker on her second time around because she wasm ore relaxed. The thing that messed her up the first time was her nerves, it wasnt that she actually didn't know the material.
All in all, I think Carly in a sense should be excused for thinking about using The Taker. She was really stressed out, and besides, I think schools should be more focused on who you are as a person than what your SAT scores are. It's true that you need to have this sort of structure because of how schools are based, but that should be changed as well. Not everyone is going to be the same, and that is how things are taught.
I think the schooling system should be changed because not everyone has the same type of learning. The way that all of our teachers have taught me in all 8 years of my education has all been the same. They all treat us as if we are the same. You might give one kid an essay, and they can have it done in an hour with it being worded beautifully. However, not everyone has that gift. Some students would do much better at doing something more creative because others have a hard time with things like that. The way schools are taught suggests that all of us are the same.
Secondly, this book made me question the schooling system. One of my top choices for High Schools are Beacon, and this is because of the way they do their admissions. I understand the point of standardized tests, but I dont feel like you can record someones intelligence based on that. Beacon asks for samples of your writing and then they have a conversation with you about it. They care more about getting to know you as a person than your test grades and how intellectual you are and things like that. Not everyone is an amazing test taker, and that shouldn't be what decides how intelligent someone is. For example, Carly scored 2200 without the help of the Taker on her second time around because she wasm ore relaxed. The thing that messed her up the first time was her nerves, it wasnt that she actually didn't know the material.
All in all, I think Carly in a sense should be excused for thinking about using The Taker. She was really stressed out, and besides, I think schools should be more focused on who you are as a person than what your SAT scores are. It's true that you need to have this sort of structure because of how schools are based, but that should be changed as well. Not everyone is going to be the same, and that is how things are taught.
Bravo, Alinah. Another wonderful post. This sounds like a book I read last year, but I'm not entirely sure if it's the same...
ReplyDeleteI agree with your views on the school system.
This is a really great post! I also agree with your views on the system. It's just like those statewide tests we hae to take. I would also rather them getting to know me and how I work than do the whole process as an overall type of thing.
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