Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990 TAG: 9005020158
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I will walk the viaduct at 5:45 p.m. - it'll be like spending 15 minutes with the old dog before the vet puts her down for good.
In response to your many inquiries: No, I wouldn't mind some company, for two reasons.
1. Perhaps I should not be alone at a time like this.
2. In 15 years, I don't want 30,000 people telling their grandchildren that they were the last ones to hoof it across the Hunter Viaduct. If you plan to boast that you were there, be there.
Salem Avenue and Jefferson Street, 5:45 p.m., Friday. Be there.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED TOPIC: Do you know what time of year this is? Select one:
a. Time to kill some geraniums by trying to re-pot them.
b. Time to shoot off the last of your New Year's bottle rockets in preparation for July 4 restocking.
c. Time to file charges against candidates who don't take down their campaign signs in a timely fashion.
d. Time for standardized testing in our public schools.
If you answered a, b, or c, you are wrong because I don't want to talk about them.
We are talking here about d - standardized tests.
The importance of these vital exams to educators and to the manufacturers of No. 2 lead pencils cannot be overemphasized.
This year, for the first time, I am the parent of a child on the whupping end of the standardized tests. We received a brief brochure on the tests, which explained that we ought to put the victim to bed the night before the test and feed her breakfast on the morning of the test.
Sound advice. We can only wonder what kind of life test-writers' kids lead. Watching David Letterman at night, blowing off breakfast for a couple of butts and a shot of mescaline before first-grade class begins?
In truth we should not poke fun at standardized tests, and we parents should never - EVER - "compare his or her performance with that of your friend's or neighbor's children," the brochure says.
That is a job left up to school administrators and real-estate agents and entire communities.
For the true purpose of standardized tests is to give counties, cities and towns a level playing field when comparing each other.
In a few months, after the test results are compiled, Roanoke County families will pile into their Saabs and drive into Roanoke City to flaunt their 89 median on the math exam. Kids on the Valley Metro bus in the city, who could manage a mere 78 on the median score, will again be held up as a bunch of brainless savages.
Then Salem will step up and boast a 91 math median, and quote a few lofty percentiles.
Grown-ups throughout the Roanoke Valley will set aside their differences and jointly hold Franklin County or Craig County up to standardized-test scorn.
Please, don't compare your child's score with your neighbor's.
Leave that up to the pros.
by CNB