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The older my kids get, the less I care about their test scores

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The older my kids get,

or maybe it’s the older I get,

I care so much less about their

test scores,

report cards

and how they do on ANYTHING standardized.

Because they aren’t standard.

There is no level of quality or attainment they need to reach in life. Surely not in my or God’s eyes.

And saying, “we’ll here’s where all the Joes and Janes scored,

let’s make that the norm,

measure everyone else against them,

and DRIVE HOME THE NOTION [insert a motivating fist shake towards the sky here]

that we are meant to be compared to and against one another,”

it’s a load of malarkey.

And the only thing I’m shaking,

is my head,

in disbelief,

that

THIS.
IS.
THE.
STANDARD.

That it has been the standard and that it remains to be.

Annnnd that nobody has had much luck reforming education to mean more than just earning degrees and accolades and allowing THAT to be what separates us apart from one another

in the rat race,

on the ladder,

on pedestals.

And why do we wanna be apart anyway? We don’t!

Sure there’s gotta be a hierarchy in business and companies for them to sustain a profitable operation, but do you know how people operate best?

The same way young, old and all students do — by way of being valued by who they are and what they do THAT MATTERS…

like being a hard worker,

a good collaborator,

a great listener,

a team player,

a kind classmate,

respectful,

curious and open-minded,

and, above all else, the kind of human that perhaps isn’t a

doctor,

lawyer,

real estate mogul,

or money-making entrepreneur,

but is making a difference, albeit maybe a smaller, less noticeable but not less laudable one, even so.

The older my kids get,

or maybe it’s the older I get,

I just care about the lot of us eternally valuing

effort over achievement,

peace over power,

and remembering that we don’t need to “become a success,” because, irrefutably, we

already are one.

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