We all know people who think of themselves as failures even if the results they earn contradict that view. And we all know people who think they are geniuses even when they cannot pass a test to save their lives. School’s job is to teach them to be learners, not losers. Here lies the conundrum that education rarely has time for but which in the end, defines what the student is going to remember and live by as an adult learner.
If someone else is telling the student how successful they are or how usuccessful, based on external assessments based on tests, and observations and exams, then what kind of story is being created about the student as a learner?
They just turned 10 but they are told their reading age is 6. They are perparing for high school, but someone tells them they need a deferred transition due to gaps in their numeracy. We worry about our kids grades, and forget about how that feels and how often that degrades them as people.
School assessment tends to be a one-down, top down, passive, submissive, outside-in, adjudication. It is objective because the student is treated as an object and she cannot object. Even if the student is assessed as performing excellent, or top of the class, and ranked in the .05 percentile and named an honor student, does that mean that this is any accurate representation of how the student perceives themselves? O course not.
Performance is built on the platform of Perception.
If that is the case, how come all we test is the performance? How come no one pays any attention to the perception? Makes no sense. Not only is our philosophy of assessment outside in, it is also upside down.
If I see myself as a confident and competent learner, then all evidence of success will confirm my self-belief. It will not necessarily make that belief. I know I can learn and so I am open to learn. Not the other way round. My perception of who I am feeds my sense of what I can achieve in the tasks that school sets me to perform. I can do it because I am a can-do person. Even if I fail at times, no big deal because I know I can succeed. I have an inbuilt resilience and see a future where I will overcome the odds I face.
What if I see myself as a loser, as always in trouble, as ADD and trauma damaged, parent abandoned, and the butt of my peers jokes and as the lone ranger in recess, what are the chances that I will inhabit a story that will allow me to be open to learning or learning much?
If I believe I am a “cannot do” then all the can- do in the world is only going to just confront me with my failure. They will warn me about dropping out, but everytime they push me to succeed, they are pushing me closer to the edge of the platform where I will not only drop out but drop off, free falling into despair.
School insists I accept their score of me. What choice do I have? But dare anyone ask me my score of them, I would probably mirror theirs, in that they have totally failed me. But as an object, I have to accept, not object. This is what they call being objective.
MYSCORE of myself as a learner in the world is the only one that ultimately counts but sadly, no one is counting it.