While we are still in the throes of examining and re-examining New Year's resolutions, let's make a commitment to our children that will reverberate throughout the rest of 2002. Be it resolved: we will take a fresh look at issues that repeatedly threaten our ability to educate our nation's youngsters.

Hands down, I would say that an over-reliance on standardized testing is culprit number one. We need to test our students. What we do not need is an academic year of constant standardized testing, with an occasional break for learning.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm anti-testing. In fact, I am a strong proponent of tests that challenge students to process and critique classroom material. Such assessments give educational professionals one tool they need to evaluate student progress.

What makes me see red is when teachers and entire educational systems feel compelled and, yes, even pressured, to teach to standardized tests. Test results do provide a valuable commodity to teachers analyzing a student's strengths and weaknesses. But testing provides us with only part of the picture. It's foolish to assume that each child will achieve in the same fashion. When we lock ourselves into a cookie cutter approach to educating our children, we ignore each student's value as an individual.

Good teaching demands the flexibility that allows a teacher to alter lesson plans, just as any coach will tweak a game plan over the course of play. If a major breakthrough takes place with cloning, or radical forces overthrow a Western European government, good teachers take these developments and fold them into the lessons of the day. Such teaching enhances learning and addresses the state standards.

Over reliance on testing prevents us from taking a lesson to its natural conclusion. The question is not: can we teach to the test? Rather, we should be asking ourselves: why would we want to teach to the test? The cost to our children is a watered-down education.

The other down side to an over-reliance on testing is the time used for test preparation. Conservatively speaking, a teacher could easily end up spending several hours of class time on review and practice test taking during any one week. Why are we devoting such a lion's share of our school resources to just one aspect of our children's education? The message we send our students is this: tests are the most important way for us to see how you're doing in school. What does that say to the artistically gifted child or the student who performs well in class, but simply does not test well? Good parents do not compare two children to the detriment of both. Schools should not condone such policies either.

Testing for the sake of testing is a waste of everyone's time. We need to put the brakes on test happy policies. Learning - not testing - should propel the way in which we teach our children.