American LiteratureTesting the Nation (Must Change)“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." Standardized testing has had a negative impact on the U.S. education system. Standardized tests alone are not an accurate indicator of students' overall knowledge. We begin indoctrinating our children in first grade with standardized tests to prepare them for the next 11 years of testing. These tests place a lot of stress on students to perform well on standardized tests throughout the year. While some students excel at test-taking, others feel overwhelmed by the process and fail to reach their true academic level. "On March 14, 2002, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related nervousness, especially among young students, is so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case where a student vomits on it. .”” The stress resulting from these tests has become so common that there are now instructions on how to deal with it. It is no longer just about taking the test for students, but about learning to prepare under the stress and anxiety brought by the test .“Critical thinking cannot be tested accurately using standardized tests. Furthermore, many students who grasped the main topics and agreed on the materials did not score well on these tests due to stress anxiety a number, because every student has creativity and personality that can never be measured by a standardized test. A student may fail a class, but it is the most challenging class in the school simply by taking a very challenging course the same can be said for s......middle of paper......exactly, it is telling our children at a young age that there is only one right and one wrong answer in life. . In this world there are multiple answers to every question because people can look at a situation differently. Also, if two students think differently, they may get different answers. These tests do not judge your ability to think or understand the overall concept, only your ability to reiterate information you have already been given. “A 2007 national study by the Center on Education Policy reported that since 2001, 44 percent of school districts have reduced time spent on science, social studies, and the arts by an average of 145 minutes per week to focus on reading and learning. mathematics.” [1] Not only is the curriculum changing, but so are the teachers. Standardized tests are now used to judge teachers' abilities. This may result in raises or termination.