i knew in the 2nd grade that standardized testing was bullshit. harry potter book 4 had just come out and i was at a good part. harry had just put his name into the goblet of fire.
during the standardized test, we were allowed to keep a post-test book on our desk. i diligently got started on part 1: english. at the time, all of the answers went on the same sheet, but all of the questions were in different booklets. so i finish all my english questions, read in my extra time, and then itās part 2: math.
i realize i have answered all of my english questions on the math portion of the answer sheet. at first, annoyed but undeterred, iām like. okay great i gotta erase every bubble. but i get bored around question 5 of doing this becauseā¦ likeā¦ harry potter is sitting on my desk and i could just give them the wrong answers.Ā so i answer maybe 10 whole questions in the math portion, copy the english answers over to where they actually belong, and then crack open the book and call it a day.
i obviously failed. this is the real life, not a movie. my parents were called in. i had scored in the lowest percentile. i was bad at math. i was concerninglyĀ bad at math. i could have done better just guessing than how i did with the english answers.Ā
if this was just a funny story, someone would ask meĀ āwhy did you do so badly when you usually get fairly average gradesā and i would have saidĀ āi wanted to read harry potter, not take this stupid test.ā but itās the real life, and nobody asked. instead, i was branded stupid and bad at math. i got placed in a lower math than i needed to be in; got bored, stopped paying attention. knewĀ i was in theĀ āworst at mathā group, started sayingĀ āiām bad at mathā and 100% stopped trying because the further i fell behind, the worse i got. through the rest of my academic career - until senior yearĀ in high school, i never got above a c on a math test, because i wasĀ ājust badā at math.
i had undiagnosed adhd. the only reason i know now i have adhd is because at 22 years old, i finally went to a therapist, who effectively said,Ā āare you kidding me you have the most obvious case of attention deficit iāve ever seen.ā
but nobody had been looking. my one test gradeĀ had given teachers permission to notĀ look, because, obviously, i was bad at math. the one time i got 100% on a math test - that one time in senior year - i remember my math teacher looking at it and sayingĀ āitās clear that if you just focused, you could do the work.ā
in college iād take a math class and i actuallyĀ ājust focusedā for the first time in my life - meaning i treated math as a challenge, but one i could overcome with the skills iād learned all on my own, through constant work and practice. i got the highest grade in my class. i still think iām bad at math.Ā
which makes me wonder: how many people got fucked over because of something stupid likeĀ āi was too preoccupied with harry potterā. who had nobody looking out for them. who slipped under the radar because - come on, arenāt some people just bad at things?
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