testing

A few days ago I had my second Jewish history test. I watched as people stressed over every detail of the Jewish people from 586 BCE to 132 CE, valuing the grade they would get on the upcoming test more than a decent amount of sleep and their own sanity.

            I have always had a disdain for big tests- they made me stressed out and consumed so much of my time. Because I would always forget the information I crammed for just the night before, tests never helped me actually learn, they just helped me do school. And I don’t believe I am the only high school student who believes that tests actually reverse the learning process that school is supposed to be for; many students would attest to studying endlessly for a test only to quickly forget it. Forgetting is a sign of lack of care, so clearly school at home is doing a poor job at inspiring us to apply what we learn at school to our real lives, a duty I believe school is responsible for.

            That’s why the EIE Jewish History tests are different: I actually have grown to care about what I am learning. Because I have visited the history of what I am learning about, and have meaningful conversation with my peers about it, I have formed a real connection and genuine interest about my Jewish history. I talked to my brother about Jewish history yesterday, and he still remembered nearly every detail of what I had just been tested on. Rarely would you see that happening on a topic that you were tested on in regular high school.

            Not long ago, we were talking in class about how to make people remember the destruction of the second temple, and I responded by saying that we should make people remember by teaching them about it, so they would create a desire for themselves to remember it.  But now I realize that there is more to remembering the destruction than vaguely teaching about it- there is a specific way that it must be taught. In order to make people truly care and remember, they must talk about it, and they must visit it. I did so, and I care very much, and I will always remember.