Group Members: Emily Foley, Mackenzie Neiderer, Isabella Bedore, Adam Griffin, Jenna Schreiber, Josh Rogers, Luke Jarvis
In our discussion we talked about how we’re taught to memorize information for tests, instead of learning how to apply our knowledge to life. Schools care a lot about their reputation and their image, and about getting money, so they teach us how to memorize information in hopes that we do well on standardized tests and get good grades. In high school, we were told that doing well on the SAT’s were extremely important to be successful in the future, and to show the school’s “good teaching”. Grades were all that we cared about in high school, instead of actually learning. In reality, standardized tests and grades aren’t as important as they used to be, and colleges and companies are looking for more experience rather than at test scores. Some people said that their schools forced them to take higher level/AP courses to make the school look better. We were taught these things, instead of learning about real life experiences and skills, how to teach ourselves, how to be a “learner”. Instead, we’re taught how to memorize information to do well on a test. However, memorization doesn’t always show good teaching/learning; everyone has different methods of learning, and some people aren’t good test takers. We asked the questions “what’s the point” if we are learning just to take a test? Why is school just a competition about “who can memorize the best”? Maybe teachers do this without realizing, since this is what they were taught in school.
