h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I work as a teaching-paraprofessional (fancy name for teacher's assistant) at a high school (ages 14-21) in Indiana. I, also, work at a local daycare with children ages 5 to 12. I see how our education system is failing our children at both ends of the age scale. Teachers are, like everywhere, over-worked and under-paid. They do not recieve the respect they deserve from the students or their parents. Both of these are generalized statements, but they do ring true for most people in education. Then I look at the side of the young child just entering school, so full of hope and will to learn. Then comes the pressure. I know that when I was is school, eons ago, there was not the pressure that they are putting on the 5-year-olds like today. I have a child in pre-school, who go to kindergarten in the morning. This child's class is having spelling tests! in kindergarten. SPELLING TESTS! Can't a child have at least their first year in school be test free? I just don't understand it. This little girl is so stressed by the pressure the teacher puts on her that is almost cries on days they have test. As educators, we want our students to do their best, sometimes it takes a little longer for students to comprehend what that person in the front of the class is talking about. In Indiana, we have tests called ISTEP, students must pass reading and math at certain levels at certain ages. If Albert Enstein had taken these test in grade school, he would have never passed. Sorry for my incoherant ramblings and if I misspelled anything blame my teachers.