Testing 1,2,3

I’m all for testing. Testing a microphone before you go onstage to give a speech for example. Testing, 1,2,3 testing. Good, it works. Testing a recipe before you serve it to your friends. Good move. Testing Zoom, before you have to go on a Zoom call. But testing preschoolers? Well that’s something else entirely. Anybody familiar with the movie Rashomon? It was directed by Akira Kurosawa in 19050, older than even yours truly, but it was about perspective. How you can see something and have a completely different point of view about what happened from somebody else who saw the same thing. If you’re watching the events in Minneapolis lately, you’ll know what I mean.

So when it comes to testing a preschooler, what does it mean when they bang stuff with a hammer? How about their scribbles? How about if they take a nap when they were supposed to be scribbling? You know what that would mean to me? That they were tired. To a school psychologist it might mean that they lacked scribbling skills or fine motor skills and thus were practicing avoidance. And what are motor skills anyway? Most preschoolers I know are too young to drive, to reach the gas pedal or to even see over the steering wheel. But the other part of Rashomon, the part which actually has a name, The Rashomon effect, challenges the basic idea that there is one single truth. Suffice it to say I am not a fan of kid-testing. And that’s my single truth.

Listen, I went to a small, fancy, private prep school in New York City and John went to a large public school in Long Island. The two experiences could not be more different. And while I ended up being a hot shot creative director at a big New York ad agency who went on to create a comic strip, John ended up being a hot shot creative director at big New York ad agency who went on to write a comic strip. Or as the group Dawes sang, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.

We will wrap up the Sammy preschool series next week as part of our first ever 6-part comic. But before that happens, we’re going to make sure our grandchildren are good with puzzle pieces. It might get them into an Ivy League school.

Have a great weekend,

Andy and John