Earlier today, I published an essay about testing (“The Voice of a Data-Point”) by a sixth-grade student, Noa Rosinplotz. Her story was so thoughtful and well-written that some commenters could not believe it was written by a sixth grade student. I emailed Noa and asked her to read the comments and respond. This is what she wrote:
“This is Noa, original writer of the letter. I’m responding to all the comments that I’m not actually in sixth grade or that someone else wrote my letter for me. While my mom did read what I wrote, to make sure it wasn’t “obnoxious” (as she put it), she didn’t make any written edits and I wrote the letter entirely by myself. I used other sources, like Diane Ravitch’s book, for information, but every word in the letter not in quotation marks was entirely my own. The fact that I’m not a certified adult educator shouldn’t make people doubt the authenticity of my letter, it should make what I write all the more accurate, as a student taking the tests. No one “guided my hand”, and protesting standardized tests was my idea and my idea only. I love to write and to make my ideas public, and I thought that if anyone was going to pay attention to my letter, I had to make it as mature and detailed as possible. I wrote a few letters to DCPS in response to their tests at the end of last year, and when I received no response, decided to make my opinions more public. I’m very interested in No Child Left Behind, especially because I’ve never experienced school without standardized tests. It’s not weird that I’M interested in researching tests, it’s weird that adults who have never taken them are. In response to “sixth graders just don’t write this way”, they obviously do, since I’m a sixth grader.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good for you! And thanks for your letter! I did let my older daughter read your letter and she LOVED it as much as I did, if not more! (I knew she would. :-))
Wonderful!
Rock on, Noa. Don’t let the doubters stop you. We need voices of reason, no matter how young!
Very well said. Your parents and grandparents must be very proud Noa.
Keep speaking truth to power. You will be heard!
All the best to you….keep reading and writing.
Well said, little sister. I got that kind of reaction a lot when I was eleven, too.
“Whar’d YOU do, swaller a dictionerry?”
Keep researching and writing with courage, care, and clarity. We need you.
Noa,
The world has always needed remarkable people.
Please continue to teach old dogs like me some new tricks!
Noa,
Please know that in life some people will make up rumors about you because they live in fear. Know that the truth will set you free. Don’t let anyone put you down. Keep going.
You go, girl. I knew you were genuine.
Noa, you make me proud to be a teacher. Let us know when your first novel is published!
And Thanks Diane for clearing that up by posting Noa’s response.
There is hope for our schools if this is what we are producing. Keep speaking out!
Never I doubt in my mind that she wrote this letter. I hope that her letter is the catalyst for more students to speak their minds in 2013!!!! Student empowerment is the key to turning around our public education system.
This is Noa’s mom. We are proud of her, and everything she says is 100% true!
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1033
Noa, I am impressed beyond belief. I especially loved your story. Your teachers and family must be so proud. You have been gifted with intelligence, logic, and imagination. Your life’s path is abutted with opportunity after opportunity. Meander down that path sampling those opportunities as you go.
Your following statement is dead on. It is what much of this blog is about and how many of the readers feel. “If education officials would descend those 20,000 feet and spend time examining and working with the 49.8 million children and 3.3 million teachers in US public elementary and high schools, they would better understand how actual students, schools, and teachers experience the tests they help to implement and create.” Come on down guys, the the water is hot but you can share in the fun!
Not only are you a wonderful writer but I’m willing to bet you are an insatiable reader too.
Keep all of it up but take time to have fun too. we all want the children to have more fun and taking fewer tests might free up some time for fun educational activities at school.
I work with middle school students and I know how articulate they are.
I love that you are speaking out. Students are so often underestimated.
(Thus, the ridiculous standardized tests!)
You, Noa, are an inspiration.
Honest skepticism is never out of place. One should be at liberty to question anything, including the authenticity of a sixth-grader’s letter. Such questioning is not cowardly or insulting.
Teachers must question such things all the time. It only takes a few essays copied from the internet (or copied and skillfully tweaked) to make a teacher vigilant.
In addition, I have seen brilliant original writing from students. I know that it exists. But it does not hurt to follow a doubt, if the doubt arises. If a work is not original, then it’s better to find that out sooner than later. And if all indications point to the originality of the work, then the matter can be laid to rest.
Sadly the formula for writing that counts towards student, teacher, or school grades doesn’t seem to include writing like this. I guess that’s why it doesn’t look like a sixth grader wrote it.
Awesome Noa, just awesome! We have the TCAP in Tennessee. I’ll never forget one of my own sixth graders who said, “TCAP stands for Tennessee’s Child Abuse Program.”
I could tell by your writing that you could be in 6th grade or thereabouts but that you probably had a very good English teacher and have had the opportunity to write for a discerning audience. That is one of the major problems with all this test prep stuff – not to mention large classes – which make it almost impossible for teachers to respond to student writing and certainly their opportunity for student reflection and revision. I was fortunate in teaching gifted students with a typical caseload of no more than 75 students a day.
Keep up your writing Noa! Most importantly keep questioning!
I must admit that I suspected some skilled editorial input, and for that I am sorry. It is extremely hurtful to have your integrity questioned. Few adults write as well as you do (and many would like to). Write on!
I love this girl! Every few years I’m lucky enough to get a gifted thinker like Noa, it makes teaching and learning fun for all! I hope her message spreads wide and far. Students and teachers in our great public schools agree with this young author. I hope politicians making policy decisions listen to students and teachers!
There is no doubt in my mind that a 6th grader can write that way. I have taught 6th grade for over 20 years and I have had my fill of wonderful writers. You go Noa…and keep writing. You have a wonderful future as a writer !!
Dear Noa,
I teach 11 year olds in Christchurch, New Zealand who have also had their voice doubted when they have spoken and written against our threatened school closures following the big earthquakes here. The doubters say that teachers or parents have put them up to it, little realising how thoughtful and insightful and interested children can be about their own education.
I thank you for adding your voice to issues that are having worldwide consequences.
Arohanui from New Zealand
I stand corrected and happily so. What a great mind. You have more than real promise as a thinker and writer. Do not stop. Develope your craft.
I am so glad to know that you really are a sixth grader.
Diana
Please provide evidence before you assume. It’s ok to question anything, even from a 6th grader but do some research to ensure your assumption is valid. Happy New Year!
I think Noa was flattered and understood why there were some who doubted the authenticity. We can all support some healthy skepticism, if it leads to the truth.
I agree, Inverness. There should be room for healthy skepticism of this kind.
A person does not have to provide “evidence” for a question or doubt. I gave reasons, and that was enough. I didn’t pretend to have information I didn’t have, nor did I make any sort of official statement on the subject. None of this was personally directed against Noa.
I did try to look Noa up on Google, but the information I found there didn’t resolve my doubt. Noa’s response did–and was probably the only thing (besides additional examples of Noa’s writing) that would have done so.
Unfortunately there are adults who use children to make their own points. It’s a powerful tactic. If anyone asks whether these points are really the child’s, others will respond, “why do you doubt his capacities? Do you have such a low opinion of children?” and such.
A few years ago, a fifth grader in Dallas created a national stir with his speech “Do You Believe in Me?” delivered to 20,000 teachers at the annual convocation event. Unlike Noa’s letter, this speech was emotionally charged but (in my view) empty of substance. At the time, I suspected that an adult wrote the speech–not because I found it sophisticated, but because I found it vapid (and vaguely insulting–e.g., “Do you believe that every one of us can graduate ready for college or the workplace? You better, because next week, we are all showing up in your schools.”). As it turns out, the DISD wrote the speech; the boy memorized it and was coached in the delivery of it. Yet people in the audience (and many around the country who saw the video later) thought the speech was his. It was a Dallas Morning News article that revealed the authorship of the speech (but few people outside of Dallas noticed). The video was played at a PD that I attended in NYC a few years ago; the presenter said that she could not play it without crying. (The boy did deliver it very well–but that’s another matter.)
The two situations is quite different; for one thing, Noa’s letter actually says something and says it well. But in neither case is initiall skepticism inappropriate.
Noa, I commend you on your letter and wish you the very best.
This is Noa. Thank you everyone for reading both my letter and my response. I don’t blame anyone for doubting me, I should probably feel honored. It was not the response I expected. I’m glad everyone (or most people) believes I wrote this myself, and thank you all who have “liked” my page on Facebook.
Good luck. And don’t stop writing.
Noa, a great way to help us all go from 2012 to 2013.
Write on!
🙂
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2010/06/resolved-girls-are-better-than-boys/57552/
President Obama needs to read your words. But instead….his policies at the moment continue to subject you to more testing to prove your reading and writing abilities. Still…I will hope for 2013, your strong and articulate voice will help influence common sense change for our schools.
Keep writing with clarity and vision. The world needs to hear your voice.
Holy moley, what a writer! I can’t wait to see what this girl does in the future.
Diane,
I just had an idea. Maybe Randi Kaye can host you, Noa and her mom. She can hold up Noa’s piece of writing and discuss the state of our public schools nowadays.
Noa, consider sending your letter to Arne Duncan and President Obama please.
Fat chance! Not Randi Kaye. Noa should be on The Daily Show.
Great idea…Jon Stewart would love her!
I was recalling the poorly written piece that Randi aired to shame all of us. I suspect the Rheeject arranged that episode.
Diane, I think both of her parents have been on the Comedy Channel already. It runs in the family
What’s a way to get it to Arne Duncan that he won’t ignore it? I’m sure any listed emails for him will be for work, and he probably gets bombarded with emails he never looks at. It’s worth a try, though.
Noa, I think your post on this blog might make it to Arne Duncan’s desk. Just a sneaking suspicion.
You could always tweet it to him.
Noa,
I sometimes wonder about the old fashioned snail mail. I have sent letters before to state and federal representatives and I have always received a response. It is worth a try. Also, I sent my letters in scarlet red envelopes:
The Department’s U.S. Postal Service mailing address is:
Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
Best of luck to you!
Hmmm…the so-called experts criticize us (teachers) for doing a poor job of teaching, yet when a sixth grader writes as eloquently as Noa, she and her teachers are not given credit or respect. The irony is palpable.
Isn’t her name Noa Rosin Plotz (that’s how she herself wrote it in the original letter)? Why do you keep running her last name together?
My last name is Rosinplotz. DCPS, ever since I started kindergarten, has spelled it Rosin Plotz, for reasons unknown. That’s how I appear on the tests, which is why I spelled it that way in the story. Just another example of the horrors of standardized tests: the instructions say “check to make sure your name is correct on the answer sheet.” I say that my name is wrong each time, to no avail.
I had to admit, that I too was wondering about whether this was a 6th grader or not. I am not a teacher, but I am a pretty regular synagogue attendee on Saturdays, I get to hear one or two speeches a week by a nervous 13 year old. Chances are, Noa is working on her speech right now! I am always interested in what the Bar or Bat Mitzvah is going to say. As our Rabbi likes to say, “they are our teacher today.”
And every once in a while, you get a child who “hits it out of the ballpark.” So these kids exist. And Noa is one of them. This won’t be the first child of very accomplished parents in DC and Suburban Maryland to make a name for herself – especially since her name is the joining together of two names anyway!
In my town of Athens GA there is a tradition going back a few years of various smart and articulate, elementary, middle and high school students writing letters to the editor. Whenever they do, quite a few online anonymous “commenters” like to say “they obviously couldn’t have written that.” Of course these online commenters are also the ones who don’t believe in them guvmint schools, so the well-reasoned and cogent letters by the kids sort of disprove their narrative. So they resort to these cowardly and pathetic accusations. (Meanwhile the kids tend to grow up and go on to major colleges and national awards and scholarships as products of our “struggling” local schools).
I say keep it up Noa– speak out and speak up! Your voice, and many others of all ages in every corner of the country, will hopefully someday resonate with the people in power who continue to pass policies that undermine and weaken our public education system. You are an inspiration and an example and please remember: don’t let the jerks get you down!
More importantly, who cares how old she is? Why can’t people focus on the arguments she’s making, instead of on the person who’s making them?
Thank you.
“It’s not weird that I’M interested in researching tests, it’s weird that adults who have never taken them are.” Noa Rosinplotz
Thank you, Noa. This quote inspires me to keep fighting the big bucks testing sham(e).