My SOL confession

As a parent, I don't like the SOL's,  This isn't shocking, most parents don't think the SOL's are an accurate measure of a child or a school, but this post isn't about that.

My confession is that when I was in school, I loved standardized testing.  We didn't have the same SOL's that kids take today.  I don't recall the name of our day long "nerdfest," but it was some younger incarnation of today's SOL.  I do, however,  remember how happy I was when it was time to spend the whole day with just me, my brain and my No. 2 pencil.

I enjoyed how quiet it was in the class, how everyone was focused, how I didn't have to think about anything else except what I was doing at that moment.  I liked that it didn't count towards my grade so all I truly had to do was my best and there was no way it wouldn't be good enough.  Even if I "failed," I could still pass.  I loved that we were all in it together.  I liked that I could go the whole day and not be worried about if the teacher was going to call on me.  I hated being called on. I felt more pressure in having to answer a question in front of the whole class than I ever felt from test days.

The point of this post is to simply share with parents that to your kids, the SOL's may be something completely different than what they are to you. Not all kids are stressed out about it.  Some actually look forward to it.  Let's not let our distaste for the test influence how our children feel about it and cause them more stress and pressure.