A few weeks ago a letter to the letter appeared in some of these papers from a mother of an elementary school daughter. The child had earned high grades but flunked the LEAP test. LEAP tests are given to students in the fourth and eighth grade. The tests are suppose to measure whether the student has learned what student should know when completing the fourth and eighth grade.
 

If a student does not pass the LEAP test then he or she must take it again during the summer. Failure to pass it the second time means the student will not be promoted. Part of the mother’s anger dealt with the fact that the parent is not allowed to see the test after it is graded by state officials. That mother’s anger is certainly reasonable.
 

The concept of the LEAP tests is ridiculous. Any teacher who has had a child for a school year, gives that child a better than average grade and then is not capable of determining whether the child should be promoted to the next grade should be shown the schoolhouse door and sent down to the fast food joint to flip burgers. If teachers cannot tell after having a child in class for a school year if the child should be promoted why do we require them to undergo a college curriculum to become certified to teach?
 

Just who in the state government are the people that are grading these LEAP tests, anyway? Do they get paid and how much? What are their qualifications to judge little kids who they have never met in their lives and based only on what the kid wrote on a piece of paper?
 

The reason given for LEAP tests is two fold. They not only are suppose to measure a child’s progress but also the performance of the individual schools. This is just another attempt that has made so-called educational experts, politicians, bureaucrats and, yes, newspaper editors and columnists get their nose out of joint when someone comes up with statistics showing that

American kids are behind kids in other countries when it comes to learning things.
Such statistics are just another proof of the old saying that statistics is the number one tool of liars.
 

I will tell you why American students do worse than those in other counties do, if they really do. It’s because the United States is one of the very few, if not the only, country where every child is forced by law to attend school. Parents of children who do not obey the law are arrested and can go to jail.
 

If you believe the same percentage of children are tested in China, India, Korea and many other nations where young people  are said to be better educated than American children, you must also believe that the moon is made out of cheese. One of the greatest benefits of Americans is our belief that everyone has the God given right to fail. Failure for Americans is not a death sentence. It is simply the necessity of trying something else.
 

If a kid can’t make the basketball team maybe he or she can make the baseball or softball team, or the track team, or get into the band, the debate team, or some other endeavor. Failure is the greatest tool of final success.
 

During the 20th Century some folks came up with the thinking that we can judge everyone, big or little, by giving them tests. That is ridiculous. Every official in the National Football League must pass a 500-question test prior to each season. Despite this, at the end of every season a number of officials are not retained because of their performance during the season.
 

If school boards do a suitable job of hiring superintendents who do a suitable job of hiring competent teachers and teacher supervisors our American kids will not only do okay, they’ll excel.

The Greyhound Bus Company says, “leave the driving to us.” We should leave the teaching - and grading - to the teachers. If politicians, bureaucrats, newspaper editors and columnists want to teach let them go to college and get certified and then get hired to teach.

Trivia Time
What was the name the comic strip created by Bud Fisher in 1907 and generally said to be the first daily strip? Hint: It featured two men, one tall and one short. Answer to last question. The term “computer” was first used in 1613 and was given to any person who worked calculated with numbers.

Contact George Frasher
 at 337-238-3433

E-mail frasher@cebridge.net.