It would have been labeled a failing school, but in the 1970s, the disingenuous scheme by which composite test scores for the entire student body are used to label schools as failing had yet to be devised. Like many elementary schools, here in Southern Appalachia, in the 1970s, relatively low enrollment forced the placement of students of varying academic ability functioning at, above, and below grade level into the same classroom. The one size fits all education model in practice, at the time, served some students well and failed others miserably. Student's outcomes in adult life have been as varied as levels of ability and academic functioning were then. In many ways, I became an educated person in spite of, rather than as a result of, my experiences there.

Realistically, every public school can be expected to produce students who score both high and low and everywhere in between on tests of academic functioning. Unlike private schools, public schools cannot screen prospective students. In all fairness, a low-test score on an academic achievement test may reflect a high degree of achievement for a pupil of limited ability.

The phrase “High Stakes Test” most likely was not part of the vernacular in 1931, but the concept held tragic meaning for one student. By all accounts, reported in the November 19, 1931 edition of The LaFollette Press, Bill Torrey had done well at LaFollette High School. The headline read “Popular Local U-T Student Ends Own Life”. A chemistry examination pad bearing a grade of “46” was found on his body.

Eighty-three years later, it is unlikely that efforts on our part could garner enough information to make a more definitive determination as to why he took his own life than the one offered by his family in The Press, December 3, 1931, “When it was decided that he could go to U.T. he was very happy, worked hard to master his lessons and when he failed to pass as he expected to, it crushed his intense desire to make good and knowing the sacrifice and sympathy and love that parents, brother, and sisters had made to help him, he gave up the battle.”

Speakers at Torrey's funeral included LaFollette City Schools Superintendent Pat Kerr, who described Torrey as a student who “dared to be different and dared to do his own thinking”. According to Kerr, “He cared for the realities of life and was a non-conformist” and “the faculty always loved Bill for his originality”.

LaFollette High School must have had an outstanding faculty in the early 1930s, because it has been my experience that students are often not “loved for their originality” much less for doing their own thinking. For example, one of my college professors required students to complete parallel readings and turn in a written summary. I assumed that included introducing topics, discussing them, and reaching conclusions about what had been read. Apparently, her expectation was that students would simply read the assignments and parrot back what they had read on paper, because she informed me after I had completed the assignments, that I was not qualified to reach conclusions on the readings. Apparently, her students, soon to teachers themselves, were to be expected to fly on autopilot, once out in the classroom, rather than thinking for themselves. Perhaps unknowingly she was preparing tomorrow's teachers for today's mindless testing and data compilation.

Students of all ages are under more pressure than ever to score well on tests. Compounding the problem teachers are expected to produce entire classrooms of high scorers. Compounding things even further, politicians and pundits are demanding the same of entire student bodies and entire school systems.

High Stakes tests are very much a reality of our day. No student of any age should be made to feel like an abject failure as the result of a test score. It is our hope that today’s parents and other influential adults will help pupils to keep things in perspective. Teachers, like the spectators to the parade, in the familiar childhood tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, dare not state the obvious when school administrators perform their magic using sticky notes and data boards.

This is an election year. Ours is the opportunity to insist on common sense rather than Common Core coming out of Nashville and Washington D.C.

Writer's Note. September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

Writer’s Note: Twenty-four-hour support is available from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. The site offers a Chat with Lifeline service at the bottom of the homepage.