“But what’s the point of reading the book if there’s not a test???”

This is what I heard from my incoming 9th grader this week. Both of my older children were given summer reading assignments. My incoming 7th grader is reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series and my incoming 9th grader has a list of classic and exceptional science fiction books. I’ll post the list he’s reading through at the end of this post in case anyone is interested.

I played around with the idea of having them do an assignment for each book. An essay, a book report, a study guide, vocabulary lists, etc. Ultimately I decided against it. All of these books stand on their own as exceptional literary works. I want them to understand that we can read, or draw, or play an instrument for the sheer pleasure of it. So, no. We have conversations about the books they are reading but there are no assignments. That’s not to say that there is never a place for assignments in literature. For this, though, I decided to just leave it. The books stand on their own. Reading the books alone will confer benefit.

It took my incoming 9th grader to the third book to realize he was just required to read the book and talk about it. He was pretty upset about this when he figured it out. “But what’s the point?!?! Why read a book if it’s not going to be for a test????” This is what our test-centric school system has done to our kids. The point of learning is for a test. Why do any work if it’s not in preparation for proving your knowledge (and then prompting forgetting what you learned, of course)? You do the work. You cram. You take the test. You get the grade. And then you forget. Books are not read for their own sake. They are read to jump a hurdle. C.S. Lewis (the author he was reading at the time) would be rolling over in his grave.

I hope that as these next four years go along for my oldest son he learns that true learning takes place in absence of the threat of an exam. After all, I haven’t been tested since I graduated from grad school 7 years ago. Did I stop learning? Was that as knowledgeable as I would ever become, at that one point in time, and it’s been all downhill from there? Of course not.

When I decided to bring my sons home from our public school system I decided then and there that they would not do any more standardized testing. I’m not putting my kids through it. The only exception would be the SAT/ACT for college admissions and the AP exams for college credit. I’m not doing yearly testing. I’m also not giving my children exams when there are other options for assessing knowledge. When a written paper or a conversation will do, I’m going to choose those alternative options. Grades are necessary in high school for college admissions. I will give them and give them honestly. For elementary and middle school, though, they’re not necessary in home schooling. I’m not teaching my children that we learn for an arbitrary number or letter on a report card or exam. We learn because it makes us better humans.

Here is the list that he is reading through, for anyone who is interestedd.

• Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
• The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin
• The Death of Grass by John Christopher
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
• Foundations by Isaac Asimov