My dad teaches at a community college. He has some students in his class who don’t have to take tests like everyone else. They take their tests with a special proctor who reads the test to them. This is so they don’t get confused by reading it themselves. I’m not joking. The idea is that they might be at a disadvantage if they have to read it by themselves.
I feel sorry for these individuals because they have never been allowed to fail. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I don’t think you should be able to get a high school degree if you are incapable of taking a simple multiple choice test without help.
Our educational system is set up to keep people from failing. But failure is an important part of growth. It is sad to see someone who should have experienced failure in 2nd or 3rd grade making it all the way to college. When they enter the workforce, they are going to fail terribly once their employer discovers that they can’t read.
Make failures learning experiences, but don’t gloss over or ignore them. You need to recognize failures to build a strong team, but you also need to recognize failure to help people grow as individuals.
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