I cannot help but wonder how I got through the sixth grade without passing my standardized test

Back when. OK? Back when.

Back when I was in grade school I dutifully walked the five or so blocks from home to school, passing each day the house known to all students to be the residence of a man who was evil because that's just the way he looked.

At school I settled into the routine. One room. One teacher. All day. We got marks of some sort. I'm sure of that. The marks might have been OK, Needs Improvement....I do not remember exactly. But I know that we got marks.

I also know that we moved from first grade through sixth grade based I suppose on some computation from OKs and Needs Improvements. Somehow that never seemed to much matter.

Now I find myself thinking of standardized tests because standardized test are all the rage today and I am trying to remember if I took standardized test when I was in grade school. Maybe we took standardized tests. Maybe I forgot. Maybe I was absent that day. Maybe standardized tests just were not all that important--no nearly so important as the evil man who had a house between school and home--standardized test just not all that important. Could be.

On the other hand, standardized tests are at the center of education today.  No, no. Standardized tests are the center of education today. How could it be that we would have missed out on such a treasure. How could it be that I went through the sixth grade and was allowed to journey on to junior high if I did not complete standardized tests?

I mean, how would grade school teachers know that I was ready to pass on to junior high teachers if I had no standardized score to prove that I had learned to cipher and read?

So there I am. No, here I am. No better off than when I began writing this. Might I have gone to junior high without documentation of more than OK and Needs Improvement?

 I could ask my brothers. But my brothers probably don't remember any better than I do. Or don't.

Life is full of mystery. Sometimes you have to shuffle along without knowing everything. Unless, of course, you have a standardized test.