Standardized testing

I really am interested in James article standardized testing. I have written two papers for this class about it already and just am really comfortable with the subject. I just feel James is exactly right about what he says in his article about standardized testing.  Teachers really do not realize that if they make you memorize a buch of dates or something for a test in History that you really are not learning anything. You would learn so much more if they let you learn about the differences betweeen two wars rather then learning about the dates of which wars happened when. Students want to learn interesting facts, not boring dates. In fact the more interesting the subject is, the more likely they are to actually learn something. Most students when preparing for a test, do just that. They memorize what they have to for the test and then they forget everything they learned a week later. That is because they did not really learn it, but instead crammed it all into their brain only for the short period of time so they could do well on the test. I think teachers should try and steer away from standardized test a little or make the subjects more open for learning rather than memorizing.