1 test + 1 day = 0 value for kids

Albany: No student should be should be judged by a single measurement on a single day. Education and life are far more complicated than trying to boil down one’s worth or potential in such a simplistic and arbitrary way. Standardized tests play an important role in assessing a student’s abilities and knowledge but cannot be the sole definer. Back in the 1990s, education officials — including the state Board of Regents — became infatuated with high-stakes testing: Get a 65 and you graduate; get a 64 and you don’t. Such rigid criteria soon fell out of favor with both parents and teachers as our education landscape turned into one big test-prep world.

The simple fact is that even very bright kids don’t always demonstrate their knowledge on a single high-stakes test. Some get nervous; others may not be up to par on a given day. Colleges use multiple measurements aside from the SATs in their admission decisions. Even accomplished actors on Broadway have been known to forget their lines and flub a performance. Kids are no different, indeed more prone to fits of nerves from the pressures of do-or-die testing. Then there are others who can ace an exam but cannot do much else.

So the right way to go is to keep tests for admission to our specialized schools, but also take into consideration other educational measurements that can more fully define the profile of a student. Testing is an important measure and we need to maintain it as part of our educational evaluation arsenal, but it is not the be all and end all. It is not for Harvard University and it should not be for Stuyvesant High School.

Steven Sanders, former chairman New York State Assembly Education Committee

The diverse past

Brooklyn: Re the many pros and cons noted of the admissions test to the specialized high schools: I agree that some changes must be made. Ange Louis wrote an excellent column (“A Brooklyn Tech student for the test,” June 6). I am a parent of two children who attended and graduated from specialized high schools in the 1980s. There was a more diverse student body at that time. Their hard work and our parental supervision and dedication helped them achieve their goals. They are minority children who didn’t attend the best public schools and didn’t get any extra tutoring or test prep because we couldn’t afford it. However, they still did well. It can be done. As for the Asian parents, the specialized high schools don’t belong to any one group. Sylvia Johnson

Summertime Success

Jackson Heights: Re “Read ’em and weep” (June 7): Eva Moskowitz founded an amazing school, Success Academy, to prepare our future leaders of tomorrow for a very competitive world. Yet in our “I need a safe space” academic environment, students from the academy have been seen crying and having panic attacks. The cause? Summer reading assignments and SAT preparations. Do students in China, India or Japan suffer from the same afflictions? No, they are too busy studying. One student observed that the academy is “a survival of the fittest game.” When will our children learn that success in life is survival of the fittest? In the time employed complaining, organizing petitions and whining, the students could have read a book. And perhaps even enjoyed it. Sorry, no participation trophies at Success Academy.

Glenn B. Jacobi

Remembering D-Day

Massapequa Park, L.I.: The June 6 edition of the Daily News made not one mention of D-Day. The editorial page had a thank you to Robert Kennedy — a known adulterer, and attorney general only because of his brother and a senator representing New York only to use as a step to get into the White House. Please don’t forget the Kennedy wealth, which the family made by working the black market so well during World War II. I guess the editors thought that D-Day stood for Donald. What a disgrace. Bill Weiss

Happiness in everyone?

Atlanta: This past weekend I was watching the movie “Trolls” with my 4-and-a-half (he’d be quite perturbed if the “half” wasn’t accentuated) year-old nephew. The 90 minutes were filled with your average G-rated story, characters of heroes, heroines, villains and a catchy quip I failed to recognize at the time; yet my nephew returned home to repeat it incessantly. This phrase was: “Happiness is inside everyone.” In the philosopher John Locke’s theory of knowledge, he asserts that the human mind at birth is a blank tablet (tabula rasa), where experience imprints knowledge. If we are all born under Locke’s theory of tabula rasa, is it possible to continue being inherently and innately “good”? Moreover, as we become adults, can we believe that happiness is indeed, inside everyone? Bernadette Perez

Believing in the Process

Brooklyn: I believe in many things that I choose not to question as I believe that they are self-evident. I believe in democracy, our ability as a society to rise to unpredictable excellence. I believe in friendship, justice for all, freedom of both speech and the press. I believe in a government by the majority. I believe in justice and tolerance for all. I believe in the equality of opportunity for all and changes to our society based upon reason and common sense. I believe that society best functions by compromise. I believe that we as individuals are entitled to our own opinions but should also submit to the majority rule in our society. I believe in being friendly and courteous to all. Yes and yes again, I am a believer.

John J. Finley

Months without the No. 1

Bronx: The MTA are a bunch of lying dirtbags. Less than two months ago, the No. 1 train was not stopping at 13 stations for track replacement on weekends. This nonsense ran for three weeks. Now, they are stopping service on the same exact stations for four weeks! Why do they have to do the same B.S. twice? Does anybody believe the lies they are spewing out? The tracks function perfectly well in the week during rush hour. When is someone going to investigate this appalling lack of service? Bob Gomez

MTA: Serve the disabled better

Ridgewood: I totally feel for Voicer Amber Drea. Unfortunately, the MTA does not care much for disabled people. I have complained about bus drivers so many times when they have not put the kneeler up and down for me as I got on and off a bus. I should not have to ask for it to be lowered. I have a cane and it’s hard for me to use a bus, and their paratransit system has said that I don’t qualify for Access-A-Ride since I can walk. Yeah, without my cane I can’t. Yet people without ambulatory devices do get their services. I have called them, emailed them, even went to their Customer Service Center in lower Manhattan, and got attitude there. I contacted the director of buses and got a reply, since one time I almost fell off the bus. You might want to try contacting him. And a suggestion to the MTA: Stop hating on disabled people. That is heartless and cruel. Disabled people have rights and deserve respect too! Amy Marino

Lost: phone. Found: kindness.

Flushing: Last Tuesday night, I went to work as I usually do. I always check my cell for subway alerts and news, and I had my cell phone when I got to Times Square on the No. 7 train, and when I got on the No. 1 train on 42nd St. By the time I got to 59th St./Columbus Circle, I’d lost my cell, so I had to get off and go back to Times Square looking everywhere; no LOUIS LANZANO luck. So I went to my job and I used the phone there and called my cell number and somebody had found it. He lived on 147th St. in upper Manhattan. When I went up to get it, I asked him if I can give him something for finding it. He said that’s OK and be careful. You still have honest people in New York City.

Eric Allen Brooklyn: Since it seems that we’re playing a game of why did Roseanne Barr get punished by having her shows pulled when Bill Cosby didn’t, a little research goes a long way. “The Cosby Show” is no longer available on cable TV. The show was pulled from TV Land in 2014 and was pulled from other channels once Bill Cosby was recently found guilty. Now they’re both being punished for their deeds.

Stephanie Crowder

Mets fans: Get used to it

Flushing: To Voicer Kevin Sheridan: If any fan would know about whining, it would be a Mets fan. Mets fans whine about everything. Your letter is an example. As for being spoiled, well, when you root for a team that has won 27 championships (eight in my lifetime, one over the Mets in 2000) you are spoiled; we expect nothing but the best. Something you don’t know much about being a Mets fan (two titles in 55 years, maybe none in your lifetime). By the way, how’s the Mets 2018 season turning out for far?

Hector Morel