Intriguing Lines in An Ethic of Excellence

While reading through the second part of the book I found this lines very interesting and they stuck out from the other text. I am not sure I fully agree with them disagree with them or just how I feel about them in general. Most of them I agree with though. Here they are. "Oddly, test taking skills have little connection to real life. When a student finishes schooling, she is judged for the rest of her life on the kind of person she is and the kind of work that she does. Rarely does this include how she performs on a test. When we assess the growth and progress of our children, when we assess the value of our co-workers, it's not test scores but rather character and accomplishments that are the basis of our measure" (pgs 101-202). "Instead of working to build clever test-takers, schools would feel compelled to spend time building thoughtful students and good citizens" (pg 102). "The average education major in America is a below-average college students" (pg 121). "Almost half of America's new teachers leave the profession within five years" (pg 121). "Teaching isn't about papers and pencils; teaching is about relationships" (pg 124). Also the whole teaching as a craft section on pages 127-128. Do you have any reactions to these comments? The one comment that is hard to accept is the one where the average education major in America is a below average student because that kind of hurts because I think that you and I and most people are above average students.