TESTS, EXAMS, STANDARDS, SUCCESS

Choices, consequences.

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." (John F. Kennedy)

Tests and exams are universal; and have always existed.

Tests and exams advance and enhance neurological firing and rewiring, it is firing and rewiring provides the potential for cognitive, intellectual and skill acquisition?to be advanced, with associated insights that further expands knowledge, understanding and creativity; with associated advancements in personal potential, which can – as history informs – help to advance social potential.

?Capacity

Tests, standards and exams also have the capacity to develop and the advance the importance and power of one’s internal locus of control, as well as the essential intrinsic capacities of mental toughness, emotional strength, as well as the capacities of self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-confidence, and the drive of dedication, determination, perseverance and also the indispensable and immutable benefit of resilience. The words never give up and never give in, have no meaning unless one has resilience, determination and dedication.

?Exams, tests and standards also advances the brain, the mind and the body (the hólos)

Hólos derives from the Greek: ?λο? ? ólos. The English word holistic is derived from hólos. Holistic and hólos offer the same classification. Holistic and hólos incorporate the concept of biological holism.

?Universal inevitability?

Tests are, and have always, always, always been an inevitable universal part of life. Self-explorative, self-extending self-improvement, the need to test and explore boundaries and then to then also extend beyond achieved boundaries, is genetically ‘hardwired’ in the brain.

?Brain-based imperative

This self-extending and self-testing is a DNA brain-based imperative because ‘the brain knows’ that it needs this process of self-exploration and self-testing (both through thinking and movement), to advance the brain and the body (the hólos) and the universal human condition itself. If that were not the case, none of us would be reading these words.

?Children have been testing themselves forever

Universally, children begin exploring and testing themselves from the moment they are born. Movement is survival and survival require movement. If you watch children at play, once they have explored and completed a particular movement, what do they do? They immediately begin to think and to physically search how they can further extend themselves. Self-testing is an axiomatic imperative. If this was not taking place, the brain and the body (the hólos) would never advance.

?The unity of the brain, mind and body (the hólos) is an objective reality

Norman Doidge reporting on the movement therapy work of?Moshé Feldenkrais concluded “that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality, that these entities are not only related to each other in one fashion or another, but are an inseparable whole. To put this more clearly: I contend that a brain could not think without motor functions.”

?We do not?have?bodies; we?are?bodies

Guy Claxton adds to this important brain and body (hólos) unity by stating that “we do not?have?bodies; we?are?bodies. If my body was different, I would be different … I am smart precisely because I am a body. I don’t own it or inhabit it; from it, I arise.”?The hólos (the brain and body) “is designed to blend all” internal and external “influences together” in one seamless operating holistic entity.

The entire universal and immutable human biological system

This means that all tissues, cells, which includes neuro and glial transmitters, electrical transmissions, hormones, ions, molecules, organs, in fact the entire biological system of the brain and body, play a role in the way our body moves, thinks and feels, and how we perceive and interact with our internal world and external world.?

?Tests, exams and standards is and has always been part of the universal human condition

Tests are continually taking place in all manner of disciplines. Any number of examples can be used here, sport, music, maths, the arts, the sciences and any other discipline one cares to mention, medicine, surgery, engineering, welding, brick laying, carpentry, and etc. I will focus on football. In football, testing takes place every week.

Before

The test is the weekly game between two teams. However, before any player is selected to play in these games – the weekly test each individual player must engage in the training and learning that takes place before each game.

?Self-directed wanting, self-regulated desire, self-managing motivation

This training will be difficult, it will extend the individual mentally and physically, and these tests will be unrelentingly effortful. The training will stretch each player’s physical, mental, emotional and skill-based capacity.

Extending and advancing knowledge and skill potential

All of this training is aimed at extending and advancing knowledge and skill potential. And the expectation is that each player will engage in this process willingly; meaning they want to be tested and they want to learn, and they want to improve.

?All disciplines, all peoples

The same principle is applicable in literacy and numeracy, or any other academic pursuit, or in any discipline that exists. Unless a student personally and self-evidently willingly applies, him or herself, to do their daily reading ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic requirements, the brain’s neurological system will not develop to provide the student with the crucial complex deep, thick, rich, brain, with its associated profound complexity of connections; which creates the mind, and provides the student – in fact everyone – with the cognitive ability, the intelligence and the skills and abilities to seamlessly engage with the world; and to have the intellectual insights, understanding and knowledge in the subject areas and/or the environment that is being studied and/or lived.

Personal activation

Unless personal effort is activated, in the form of daily training and weekly tests, there will be no associated advancement in mental and emotional toughness or resilience. As alluded to above, if you watch children playing, children are not afraid of tests. So why are children taught to be afraid of tests by adults when they begin school?

?The immutable fact: There are no shortcuts to advancing the universal human condition

There are no mental, physical, neurological or neuromuscular short cuts, in any activity. To develop and advance one’s knowledge, skills, understanding, insights, creativity, emotional strength and resilience; all of this requires the application of personal passion, hard work and unrelenting effort. It is this process which fires the neurons to develop all of its immense complexities that leads to the development of a complex and powerful mind and body (the hólos). There simply are no shortcuts.?

The alpha and omega

Ultimately, the immutable fact informs; we are only here, in this particular time and place, because there were others before us, who willingly met all of the standards, and undertook all of the exams and tests, by and through their own personal application; and as each standard was reached, and as each test and exam was passed, all of these individual steps is what led to advancing knowledge, skills, insights, creativity and human potential.

The next time

The next time you switch on a light, know this, the road to where a switch turned on a light, did not just magically happen. The same is true the next time you turn on the elixir of life, without which human life would not exist, and this elixir of life flows from taps. The development of a tap did not magically happen.

The irrefutable universal fact

The next time you are at a dentist and you are to receive an injection in your gums to eliminate all pain. This invention did not just happen. Neither did the anaesthetic that provides the means for surgeons to operate. And what about the skills of surgeons, of pilots, of engineers, of mechanics, of bricklayers, and etc.

One self-evident outcome

Without all of the required tests, exams and standards being in place; without all of the personal motivation and associated application of hard work taking place; without focussing on, applying and working towards, and achieving all of the required universal standards, the irrefutable universal fact and self-evident immutable truth speaks for itself; we would not have the life, and nor would we be benefiting from all of the life-style and social benefits we now have. The fact is that all of those hard working, self-motivated individuals, that are here with us now, and, of course, all of those in the past, who self-evidently also worked hard, and undertook and passed all of the required tests and exams, and met all of the necessary universal standards of excellence, it is these individuals who have created the world we live in, which we now all take for granted. To eliminate tests, to eliminate exams and to lower the required universal standards of excellence - irrespective of the discipline - as history has informed time and time again - all of this can will only lead to one self-evident and self-destructive outcome.

SAXTON SPEAKERS:?https://www.saxton.com.au/speakers/ragnar-purje