Being Defined vs. Being Meaningful

My daughter Jeri (a high school junior) came home from school yesterday feeling defeated. She had made a B on an AP Psych test. Many of you know how I feel about bringing home B’s! While I have no problem with B’s, I knew how hard she had studied for that test. She had every word and its definition on separate index cards. I reviewed all the words with her, and she didn’t miss any in our practice sessions. She put forth an effort any parent would be proud of. However, the test revealed that the teacher didn’t just want the students to know the definitions. The exam was all about situations that involved having to clearly identify the meaning of the words through circumstances that were being described.

While I was bummed for Jeri because I knew how hard she worked on hundreds of definitions, I was impressed and taken by this learning moment. (more…)