A Call to Reform in Test-Taking:

There is a bug programmed into our educational system, chiefly owing to the fact that we are obligated to sit next to one an other whilst we are being tested, but we are not permitted to examine one an other’s work. Imagine, for instance, a REASONABLY Intelligent student. He is seated next to a troubled student. This latter student is good at memorizing dates and places, but he is absolutely insane. He is completing the same test as is his aforementioned peer, but while he’s doing this his mind is scattered all over the classroom. At one moment, it’s on the clock. Then it’s on the girl that sits in front of him. Then it’s on the teacher. Then it’s on page two. Then it is on page three. Then it is on his parents, or his favorite sports team, or the weather, and how all of these MIGHT change in time.

The more intelligent of the two students is, of course, downloading all of this emotional stimuli, directly. He simply has no means of processing it without actually:

1.     Talking to his classmate.

2.     Observing the classmate’s work, especially each time that the latter changes pages.

3.     Taking a bathroom break, or otherwise moving to an other desk, so as to weigh the stimuli against an other set of stimuli, finding one’s “self” as a control group.

The troubled student gets an A. The Intelligent student gets expelled.

Dm.A.A.