Standardized Tests Are Bad For The Soul

I hate standardized tests. Simple as that. They scare me, they stress me, and they generally make me feel terrible about myself if I don't do well. Schools should just get rid of them.

According to procon.org, standardized tests that start at a young age "rob children of their childhood." Play time in a lot of public elementary school has gone down and is being replaced by longer lessons and study times.

According to Fairtest.org standardized tests are hardly even helpful or reliable. They test everyone in the same conditions with the same questions at the same time. At first glance, that may sound fair, but everyone is different. Someone might excel at answering questions the way they are written or at testing in those conditions. However, there are those who just do horrible under those conditions.

Aside from that, these tests judge students purely on their academic strength. According to Education Researcher, Gerald W. Bracey, these tests can't test creativity, personality, common sense, people skills, motivation, or a number of other things that are very important in life.

Standardized tests are horrible, stressful, unreliable, and downright unfair (not to mention generally evil). The world would be a happier place without them. I would be a happier person without them.

Don't Be Rude, Please

Okay, this is more of an opinionated request than a researched topic, but it is something that is kind of important to me and is also one of my biggest pet peeves.

Imagine you are in a store.You are just browsing through, when your sleeve catches a thing and it falls on the floor. You have pretty much two options:
You can bend over, pick it up, and put it back where it came from
or you can just walk away.

I used to be one of the people who would just leave it there, but if a hundred people do that, and only two people are actually working in the store at the time, everything ends up one the floor.

The same thing goes for when you pick something off the shelf, walk down a few aisles and realize you don't want the thing anymore. Instead of going back a few aisles, you just drop it on the shelf you're at.

It is a lot of work and very frustrating when a person that works at a store cleans up an aisle, goes to clean up another one, and by the time they get back to the first aisle, it is completely messed up again.

I guess I just want people to be more thoughtful and aware of themselves and others when they are shopping. I know it sometimes feels like a complete waste of time to go all the way to the other side of the store to put something back, but it keeps the store looking nice and it frees up the employees' time to do more productive things than cleaning up after other people.

How To Tell When Someone is Lying

People lie a lot, so I figured it would be helpful to be able to tell when they are. Also one of my favorite shows is Lie to Me. You should check it out.
DISCLAIMER! I am not a professional anything. This is all based off of the internet. I looked it up for my own amusement and I thought it would be fun to share what I found.

Okay, according to Sci Show, there are three things people almost always do when they lie.
1. They will say something along the lines of "believe me" or "to be honest"
2. People who are lying usually speak in a more formal way. They stop using contractions.
3. They will try to distance themselves from the situation. For example they will use words like "that" or "those" instead of "this", "the", or "these"

Also, against popular belief, people tend to be significantly more stiff when lying, not fidgety. People tend to make more eye contact instead of less. They will do things like shake their head when say yes and nod when saying no, and they will smile after telling their story, even if it is horrible. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and will use your new found lie detector powers for evil-- no, I mean good.