Millennial Mom Shocked To Learn Her Daughter's State Writing Exam Doesn't Include Any Actual Writing
Say goodbye to No. 2 pencils.
fizkes | Shutterstock Standardized testing has long been a part of the public school system. While there have been arguments made against students needing to take them, there hasn't been a significant shift in their use. What has happened, according to a millennial mom, is that some of these exams have changed in their formatting and structure.
In a TikTok video, Erin Monroe admitted that she was shocked to learn there was a new format for these standardized exams after speaking with her daughter, who was preparing to take her state writing exam.
The mom said her daughter's state writing test doesn't include any actual writing.
"I was taking my daughter to school. She's in sixth grade, and she was talking to me the other day," Monroe began in her video. "She was like, 'I don't really wanna go. I have to take an ELA state test today and it's gonna be a lot of work.'"
Monroe explained that she sympathized with her daughter as someone who was once in school and had been forced to take those same state exams. She tried to encourage her daughter, telling her that the test would be a breeze and that as long as she did her best and got through it, everything would be fine in the end. Monroe even made a joke that she knew her daughter's hand would probably be hurting at the end of the day from all that writing.
Monroe's daughter didn't get the humor, however. She asked her mom if, during the "1900s," kids were supposed to handwrite their entire exams. Shocked, Monroe told her daughter that exams were done with a pencil and paper before asking how she and her other schoolmates were taking the test.
The mom said all standardized testing is now done electronically, even the essays.
"She was like, 'No, we type all of our exams. And I said, 'Get the [heck] out of my car. You're trying to tell me that you're complaining about doing your exam, and you get to type it?'" Monroe exclaimed.
Monroe scolded her daughter for trying to make an "old" joke by referring to the time she was in school as the "1900s," before pointing out that it was good character development to write out all of the answers, and the big essay at the end, when she was young.
"If you're a millennial and you're wondering what our version of uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow is, apparently it's handwriting our exams in the 1900s," Monroe sarcastically quipped.
Considering that students nowadays spend most of their time on laptops and tablets, it's not entirely surprising that the public school system has shifted to digital test-taking. However, the idea of a handwritten exam still feels like a rite of passage. Whether these standardized tests have become digital instead of pen-and-paper doesn't change the pressure that they still have on students.
Educators have expressed their frustrations about students having to take state exams.
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According to data from the EdWeek Research Center, only 25% of educators said state-mandated tests provide useful information for the teachers in their school. However, nearly half of educators (49%) said they feel more pressure now than before the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure students perform well on them.
Forty-two percent of educators said the amount of pressure has remained about the same since 2019, while 9% said it has decreased. For both students and educators, state exams are overwhelming and put way too much pressure on kids to test well. These exams never take into account the different learning and testing styles that students have and have often been criticized as an inefficient measure of progress and intelligence.
At the end of the day, students are required to adhere to a system that constantly prioritizes performance over the progress they have made throughout the school year. While it's shocking for older generations to realize kids are now taking their state exams on laptops, it's also shocking that little has changed when it comes to testing students in schools.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
