YOLO - They only live through school once and for them, it's all testing...

The Dallas Observer reported a story yesterday about a young man in Texas who, frustrated with nonstop testing, wrote YOLO (you only live once) on a response. He snapped a photograph of  and tweeted it under #FreeKenyon via Twitter. It was an act of rebellion that was frowned upon and resulted in four days of in-school suspension. He also tweeted, it is reported, to school officials and testing agencies. The act was a response that some tests are more important than others and this test, another one, was not. The  action, however, has caused alarm bells to ring.

I am thinking about Yancey's celebration of a similar situation when This is Sparta was spread rampantly a few years ago while students who took an AP English exam. They challenged one another through the community of social media to place This Is Sparta somewhere in the essay response they were writing. The joke spread quickly and students across the nation found clever ways to use the words in their writing - so much so scorers took notice. The tongue-in-cheek behavior is evidence that the minds of kids are much more alive than they are given credit for (especially the tests).

Perhaps this is the imp in me, but I love knowing that students step up and define independence and critique of some of the inane tendencies of our schools, especially assessments.

Of course, testing agencies and administrators went after the young man. He breached high security information that companies like to keep hidden from one another to advocate the excellence of their measurements and the importance of their exams. I'm reminded of the 1989 NYS Chemistry Regents examination in which I benefited (this is way before the Internet and smartphones). The test was published by a NY newspaper in demonstration of how easy it was at the time to get a bootleg copy of a test before it was administered and poked fun of the intensity of the exams placed on them. They proved how easy it was for some to cheat if they had the right connections. That year, 11th grade students in NY received a perfect score in Chemistry because the scandal was too widespread to validate that exam.  I can say, honestly, THANK GOD for that.

, I think this student has demonstrated an intelligence that will never be measured by companies. Sadly, schools who don't listen to kids and their frustrations are still in power to scold them when they conduct mild forms of protests. All in all it's just another brick in the wall.

What awaits now is whether or not more and more of this will happen. Like parents and teachers, students have had enough. I can't blame them one bit.