I was having a little fun thinking about Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” this morning and I posted a status update at Facebook with a potential chorus. I was thinking about how this very song inspired a generation of fans of her music. Then, I started to think about our students today with all of the testing they must do now and will do in the future. Is a song like Whitney’s–full of hope–lost on a generation of students whose schools now use the main spaces and hallways to post the most recent data and the number of stars the school has earned instead of using that space to display the rough drafts of a new poem or a haphazard attempt to draw a giraffe?

So, I sat down and wrote the whole parody, “Give Me One Test; Make It Timed” to try to say that I believe–with the highest degree of confidence–that no generation of student will ever look back upon their childhood and say, “I really appreciate hwo my school embraced a testing culture and made that culture a part of our day everyday.”

These parodies come up pretty quickly and in bursts. I try to stay as faithful–phonetically–to the original work. If you want to. . .sing along. 

And please share along. . .I write these for me. . .for you. . .

and for them.

You see. . .today’s anchor picture for this parody are my two children, Noah and Maddie. This is their time.

To be children.

To be.

To shine. 

This moment in time is too brief to spend it filling in bubbles.

 

“Give Me One Test; Make It Timed”

(a parody of “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston)

Each day I sit,

faithfully stay.

Hoping we get

somehow to May.

I’m in row one;

hour’s  just begun.

Another year

I’ll be unknown.

 

They took my art;

no music again.

Can’t feel my feet;

my rear’s in pain.

I try and fail—

results in the mail.

There were no gains:

 

Give me one test; make it timed

if this is all that you think I should be.

Put all of the answers there on the sheet.

Conveniently marked A through E.

Oooh, Give me one test; make it timed

when I’m racing with the student–next to me

there isn’t one moment to spare

Let me see. . .

is it B???

or is it E???

 

I wanted to be

the very best.

No place for me

though on this test.

No time for dreams,

‘cause now it seems

It’s in my hands:

 

 

Give me one test; make it timed.

Rank Johnny  and Sally and me.

Making over-sized banners with all of our scores.

And post them for parents to see.

 

Oooh, Give me one test; make it timed.

Is this how we want it to be?

All of our moments spent bubbled away

Why can’t they see. . .

Our misery. . .

This travesty. . .

 

 

We’re children—for just short time.

Please, help us use that time

so we can shine. . .

 

Give us another use for our time

We’re more than the data lets us be.

All of our future’s a school year away;

Help us to be a community.

 

It’s our moment—yours and mine—

not the testing entities’!

And with this test-free moment in time

We will be

We will be

All we could be

We will be

All we could be. . .