Testing week is over in Louisiana, with LEAP, Iowa and GEE tests behind us all.

For it is for certain that these tests are important to us all. As parents of school-aged children, the message has been drilled into us, urging us to help our children in every way possible.

As educators, we have the pressure on us as well, not to “teach the test” but to provide the necessary material for a quality education, with these tests serving as a scale of communicative success.

Finally, as a community, these tests are a grade on us all. It is a reflection of how important we believe education to be through how well we equip our schools and their staffs to perform their quality task.

The test period can be stress-filled, but for the parents and teachers staying aware of how stress can affect their children. By maintaining routines, making sure of their rest and relaxation and healthy meals, the children are coming to school prepared in every way possible.

Industries, churches and civic organizations have even gotten involved, sponsoring and participating in tutoring programs. In time, companies wishing to relocate into the River Parishes may use such test results as these to judge the overall quality of our educational system. If we produce disciplined, well-educated students, they will help to attract more of the same.

These additional students will come from new industry and large companies, providing jobs, tax income and the means to make further progress in bringing Louisiana out of the public-education doldrums and launching the state into the stratosphere of excellence, where we should be.

All of us desire a quality education for our children, and for our children to find jobs here, raise their families here and send their own children to the same system which launched them so well in life.

However, it must start somewhere and somewhere is right here, and sometime is right now and someone is you.

Quality education is vital to the survival of any community. Let’s support it.

L’Observateur