Open notes testing could help in education
by Jordan Cooper
Life is not an open book. It ain’t easy. It isn’t spoon fed to you. It isn’t uncomplicated. However, we do have an open invitation, that is to learn how much we want to know. It is to understand what we would like to. It is to be the people who we want to be and we can find it along the way how to live in that manner.
Nothing is promised. Nothing is predetermined. Nothing is preset. The only things that are are death, retirement, and paying your taxes. More specifically, in our classrooms we overthink memorization too much and don’t emphasize learning enough. Kids can absorb information to a greater degree if they’re allowed to use what they studied for a test and refer to it. They shouldn’t be able to consult a textbook or any of their reading materials while they’re taking their assignments in class.
Yet, their homework should be able to be utilized for getting a larger grasp of the lessons during their assessments. Heck, if we go to the doctor they have a physician’s assistant, nurse, medical encyclopedia, and the Internet to use if they don’t know what a patient is dealing with right off hand.
A lawyer has the same opportunity to use more information besides their own brain with a paralegal, legal assistant, law clerk, another attorney, or the Internet too. That’s a whole lot of information at your fingertips and those people have doctoral degrees. Plus, at any job you go to you’re going to have some sort of source to make use of.
Yeah, we should have already instituted forms of open notes testing for some subjects in schools and I would adamantly advocate for it to improve our country’s education. Additionally, this could greatly diminish disparities in the grades between men and women. This concept could lead to more self-assurance for women when they undertake standardized tests as well.
Jordan Thomas Cooper is a 2015 graduate of the University of South Carolina with a degree in History and a 2010 graduate of the Real Estate School of Success in Irmo. He is the first African-American to serve in both the governor and lieutenant governor’s office as an aide and first to serve in the Inspector General’s Office in S.C. (Haley) He is also the first person to serve in the top three offices in the gubernatorial line of succession in South Carolina (Haley, Bauer, McConnell). His research indicates he happens to be the second black presidential campaignspeechwriter in American History and the first for a GOP presidential campaign (Bush 2015). He also played football for Coach Steve Spurrier.