Well, today marks a very important milestone in my 9 year olds life. 

His first exam.

Today marks the start of the  ”National Literacy and Numeracy Assessment”, throughout Australian schools.   Today hundreds of Grade 3, 5, 7 and 9’s will be sitting for the next 3 days tests on basically how good they are at the above.   My poor little bugger, will sit the following tests:  

http://www.naplan.edu.au/timetable/timetable.html.   

He has already had a practice session last week and according to him, who I might add is quite a bright little spark, “It was quite easy really, I finished it before time was up, but could not do the division part, only Kelvin did that, none of us could do that part.” Kelvin is one of my sons friends and is bloody intelligent.  Usually the maths and spelling tests, done every week have usually got the same 4 kids at the top.  My son, his best mate Josh, another boy and Kelvin.  The odd girl is in their some times.  Now I am not the type of mother, that sits there and goes on and on about how brainy my child is.  That is not me.  But what I do recognise is his achievements and Aiden has never struggled at school, whatsoever.  He loves education and is like a sponge.  Soaks everything up.  He has always been like that.  He, already knows what he is going to be  and has so, since he was 4.  That is either an Architect or an Engineer.  This boy is a Hot Wheels and Lego fanatic, ask any relative, what they have had to buy him every birthday since he could walk and they will all say the same thing.  He is even got a little gang at school, that consists of his two best friends and him, and they call each other, the “Trihotycles”.  Three boys, who love Hot Wheels, Lego and Bionicles – a brand of Lego.    He loves nothing better then building and designing new looking cars or houses out of Lego, off the top of his head I might add.   I am thinking he will be involved in car or house design of some sort.  American Chopper, those car rebuilding shows on Foxtel, Bathhurst, Nascar, Formula 1, he watches.  Heaven help us when he reaches 18, the legal driving age in Victoria.  He has already picked out his first car – a Suburu WRX.  Oh, and he also loves Tattoos, and has picked his first one out already and thinks it is so unfair he has to wait till he is 18.   Dad has four already.

But, some children do not have that luxury and struggle all through their school life.  My husband, is one of the most intelligent men, I have ever met.  He is not an academic, but is very technical and practical in his ways of thinking or doing.  This is a man, that can build benches, cabinets off the top of his head, and talk all day about the different types of toilets, copper, hot water systems etc.  He works for a plumbing subsidary of one of the biggest copper merchants in the Southern Hemisphere.  When he is not sitting in front of the tele watching his beloved Rugby, that is.   He left school at year 10 and has had to work his backside off to get anywhere in life.    Now this is someone that has hated school his whole life, by Year 10 he was out of there.  Yes, he realised what an idiot, he is, to have taken till the age of 35 to get a decent income and job (he is nearly 37), and that he had to work his way through the company starting as a driver, ten years ago to get where he is, an Assistant Branch Manager, whereas other people go straight into well paying jobs.  But, one thing he does know is that he was true to himself.  He knew that he hated learning and even know to get him to review his forklift book (as he needs to get his forklift licence for work), is asking alot.  This is a man, that will not read books, only the picture variety and if they have nudie pictures, all the more reason to look, or if they are written by “Vicki Petratis”an excellent true crime author and good friend of one of my brothers.   But, he is not stupid.  He watches documentaries about anything and everything, and does read the paper.  To him, he is still learning but in his way. 

I come from a bit of mixed bag academically.  I have one brother like my husband.  He left school at Year 9 and is now quite a successful “Gadget” man, as he is calls himself.  He hated school, and as soon as he was old enough, he was out of there.  Whereas on the other hand, my older, but younger of the two brothers, is a teacher and “Mr Academic”.     He has a teaching degree, as well as I think his “Masters”.  Feel free to correct me dear brother.  Me, on the other hand, has got the same level of intelligence as both my brothers.  But, due to a childhood injury, I acquired at the age of 3, I have struggled through school.   That is why my grammar, is not the greatest.  When I was 14 I was diagnosed with Epilepsy, so on top of the already “Acquired Brain Injury”, that I had, the Epilepsy was a double bonus.  I understand things well.  I am very bright, but just take a little bit longer to digest things, depending on whether my happy pills are doing their job, or I have had enough sleep.  I do come across some times as “Vague Vera”, but do not let it fool you, I am not stupid, just maybe having a bad day.    Both our parents are quite smart people when they put their mind to it, and before the Alzhiemers took control of dear old dad, he would amaze you with the stories and level of intelligence he had.  This is a man that, if he had stayed at school, I reckon would have gone on to be a great University Professor.  My mum who has been the homemaker for 44 years, has just astounded me with the way she is coping financially and mentally with my dad’s recent admission to a nursing home.  This is a woman that was not allowed to touch the financials;  just to keep the home nice and look after the kids.  She only learnt to write a cheque about 5-10 years ago.  She too, left school at Year 8.

 I remember one time at the end of Year 11, sitting in the office at my beloved Star of the Sea Ladies College.  By beloved I am being sarcastic (I hated the place, there were no boys to perve at, only the ones on the way home, and my year level were quite snobby and bitchy), there was a meeting organised with my parents and the year level co-ordinator.   You see I had failed a few subjects, and she was concerned that I may not have the potential to complete Year 12.   Well, if they had place more of an emphasis of helping kids like myself, instead of putting them in the dumb class, and ignoring them,  I might have passed these subjects.  I ended up repeating Year 11 for one term, left, worked for the rest of the year, went back following year and got my Year 12, at another school I might add.  I, then applied for Uni, got into a teaching degree, but dropped out, as it was not for me, and I am more financially minded then anything else.  I, then went on and completed an Associate Diploma in Business Administration, where I majored in Accounting and Medical and worked as a Practice Manager for a Paramedical Clinic, till I had the kids.   I am now studying a Bachelors Degree in Business (Financial Planning) at RMIT off campus.  For those not from Australia.  It is a way to get your degree from the comforts of your own home.  Still the same degree, but at your own pace. 

I actually ran into that ”Co-ordinator” about 15 years ago and in a nice way, let her know that I got Year 12 and I was studying to be a teacher.   I should have mentioned to her that I was aiming to be the complete opposite to her.  Open minded, helpful and not an academic snob.

But really, is this assessment going to help those kids that struggle.  When the statistics are out, we will know what part of Australia is smart and what is dumb, but how many of these kids will fall through the gaps.  Some kids are great at tests, some are not.  This assessment does not do justice for all those with learning difficulties.  The results will be in Aidens report, but will the schools improve and try to help these kids.  All these kids will see, is that “I fall in the dumb category”,  or “I fell in the smart category”,  and some schools will look at these statistics and ignore the kids with problems and focus on the “smart ones”.  I know that these Assessments are to help the Education board better plan their teaching content, but does it really show the potential a kid has, or does it just separate the masses, as always.

My whole point is that teachers need to place more emphasis on the struggling kids.  I love my brothers attitude to teaching.  He looks at each child as an individual and gives them choices.  Sometimes children can get lost in a classroom, and if you do not have that attitude they end up not fulfilling their potential.   I just hope that by having these tests, every teacher will start looking at children like my brother does.

Keep up the good work dear brother.

Ciao for now.