Does Higher Standardized Scores Mean Happier Grown Ups

One of the things my husband and I have come to learn and believe is that higher standardized scores do not necessarily transfer to a happier or a more successful grown up. This national obsession with numbers and results has led to school situations that are far from natural.

My husband and I are fairly nontraditional in our child-rearing beliefs. We don't believe in baby sleeping in a baby rooms, or racing to get our kids to read. We don't believe in formally planning to socialize our kids before they are ready or in forcing them to go to bed at ridiculously early hours. In seeking within and witnessing our kids grow, we have come to believe that they learn best when concepts are taught within a natural environment and within context, outdoors, or engaged in activities that carry no stress or overexcessive amounts of irrelevant information.

As I prepare to teach yet another year, and this time with my own son within a public school system, I have made to pact to always remind myself and my son that his worth should never be connected to his grades. I aim and trust that no matter what his academic path looks like in these coming years, my main goal in raising him is for him to enjoy his childhood, learn all he can about the things he loves, like rocks, volcanoes and The North Pole (this week). I will do my best to make these years as magical as can be and always focus on the sacred in him always.