Let's face it. The FCAT sucks. Big time. Ask kids how they feel about it and you'll get a reaction similar to that on the faces on my students. (Tacky Day. "Hey. Look serious for this one.")

Today we had a faculty meeting in the computer lab. The purpose of this meeting was to demonstrate to teachers how to . . .

1....get to the FCAT STAR website

2....access more information than you could possibly need about how your students did on LAST year's FCAT

3....whittle down this info into tidy and tedious snippets of one day in the lives of your students

4....decipher every possible heading and sub-heading of every possible section and sub-section of last year's FCAT

5....decide what the hell you're going to do with this information.

This is no way to structure a learning environment. This is no way to compose a year's curriculum. This is no way to inspire teachers to teach or children to learn.

The FCAT effects me the same way stroking a cat's fur from tail to nose must feel for the cat.