Robbing Thanksgiving

Many people will not be able to enjoy their Thanksgivings normally due to having to work. They will not have the opportunity to relax and spend time with their families. Is this fair? Should people be robbed of their Thanksgivings because we all want to shop and get the best deals possible? People should all get the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving how it is intended.

Thanksgiving is a holiday made for eating food and spending quality time with family. It is not intended for shopping and getting ready for Christmas. Many people seem to forget what Thanksgiving is all about. It is about being thankful for everything that we already have, not going out and buying more things to stuff our already overflowing homes with things that we do not need. That is why Black Friday was created. Black Friday is the day where we go shopping and get the deals for Christmas. If all the stores agreed to close on Thanksgiving, then there would be no push to be open on Thanksgiving, because no store would be trying to outdo the other. A small amount of stores have recognized he importance of Thanksgiving and have decided to close. These stores are perfect examples of how every store should treat Thanksgiving. It is a holiday, treat it like one.

People should not be robbed of their Thanksgiving because stores are opening early. Leave that for Black Friday. Thanksgiving is for family, relaxation, eating food, and remembering what we are thankful for. Not shopping and snatching the best deals. Stop robbing Thanksgiving.

Standarized Tests: Exposed

Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our school whole. Of course, on the late, late show no one ever insists that the monster is really doing us a favor by making its victims more “accountable.” In real life, plenty of people need to be convinced that these tests do not provide an objective measure of learning or a useful inducement to improve teaching, that they are not only unnecessary but highly dangerous. (Alfie Kohn, 2000)

 

This quote perfectly sums up what standardized testing has done. Standardized tests have always been something that bothered me. Why should one test determine the rest of your life? Standardized test have been given way too much power throughout the school systems. They should not be the main source that colleges look to when they are looking to give out scholarships and scout new students. Colleges should be looking at how the student has done throughout the four years of high school, not how they did on one test one day.

 

Standardized tests do not prepare you for adulthood, also known as the “real world”. Excessive testing may teach students how to be good at taking tests, but does not prepare them for adult lives. Students spend hours upon hours of studying for these tests, and in the end they don’t retain it.  They just learn it for the test and then forget the material. Why should students work from 1st grade to 12th grade when in the end all that is going to matter is what they score on the standardized tests? Standardized tests should not have as much power as they do.

 

Standardized tests are what schools thrive on. They can make or break you. While schools are focusing on teaching towards the tests, they are doing the students a disservice by not preparing them for the real world. Schools need to focus on the student’s talents and what they are good at, not what are on these standardized tests.