Is Testing Week causing students’ laziness?

team, and readily divulged that the carnival would not have been possible without them. It also wouldn’t have been possible without the Yeshivah’s help in providing facilities, logistics, and the security and maintenance staff’s support.

By Jeanette Cohen Editor-in-Chief

On the following Sunday, students will deliver the packages to old-age homes Haym Solomon, Ateret Avot, and Ahi Ezer. There they will sing and dance with the seniors, spreading the joy of Adar to old age homes that many students will never have visited before.

“We’re bringing surprise creative twists to our event to bring a new level of fun and meaning, something we strive to do at every event,” Elmann said.

The two-part Purim event is the first MCF activity since the December carnival with CARE, which was a massive success and set the stage for greater awareness of chesed organizations and interconnectedness within the Flatbush family, Elmann and Falack said.

CARE For Special Children is a Jewish disability support nonprofit based in Brooklyn that, on December 11, partnered with Flatbush to set up a carnival where Flatbush students could spend time with special-needs children; over 500 people, including 215 students, attended. “I was in tears from how successful it was,” Falack confessed. Rabbi Besser praised Elmann and Falack, saying he’d never seen an event planned and executed so well by students.

The secret to MCF’s success, Elmann testified, was in its captains. Ten leaders from each grade were chosen to help organize and recruit people for the carnival. “They are the heart and soul of MCF,” he said, and each of them are leaders who are dedicated to chesed; both Elmann and Falack are incredibly grateful to their

Elmann and Falack chose to work with CARE for a specific reason: it receives far less attention than other organizations. MCF’s mission is to bring all walks of chesed organizations into the mainstream volunteer network centered in Flatbush. And the partnership didn’t end with the carnival; volunteers are still being sent in small groups to, inter alia, watch and entertain children while their parents are with their disabled siblings in the hospital. The carnival also had a bigger impact than just connecting the Flatbush family with CARE. For example, parents who had come for their childrens’ interviews were incredibly impressed with and inspired by the intricacy and scale of the event, Falack said, and he hopes this will spark a love for chesed in the younger students.

The carnival offered a variety of activities, including a balloon company, clowns, face painting, and many games. Independent donors provided XBoxes and iPads as prizes, with the iPads being intended as communication devices for children who can’t speak.

Last year, senior Jack Saad approached Falack and Debra Mizrahi with the idea of MCF, and they played an important role in organizing the four events that took place over the course of the year. After Saad graduated, the two—now juniors— took the helm and revamped the captain system, appointed Mizrahi and Francine Esses as the junior grade representatives, and created a new and improved MCF. The purpose of the organization, nonetheless, has remained the same. “We are the bridge between these [outside] organizations and the students of Flatbush,” Falack said. “Everyone knows about the Thursday night SBH cookings, but does everyone know about the Tuesday night CARE event that’s going on in peoples’ houses? From Hatzalah to Special Children’s to the cancer center, there’s always things that need help and fixing; as students of Flatbush, and as Jews, it’s important to know that.” The two are excited about the impact of the carnival and feel that it was a great start to MCF’s second year of fostering a love for chesed within the Flatbush family.

As the school year progresses at Flatbush, many students and teachers have perceived an energy shift in the building, alongside a lack of motivation that may be a result of the newly implemented testing week.

Testing week brought forth the change from consistent testing throughout the semester to a “testing week” system where students are tested on several subjects once every six weeks. Its initial announcement was greeted with a warm welcome from students, who were grateful for an escape from Flatbush’s notoriously stressful bombardment of tests. However, after experiencing testing week twice, with a third round on the horizon, many students have changed their minds.

Senior Lauren Bensimon stated, “I go to school every day and learn, but without frequent testing I’m just not retaining any of the information.” Senior Robin Cohen agreed, saying, “I 100% think it’s made us lazy. Not only is testing week an excuse for kids to not take notes and just grind the night before, but it encourages it.” Continuing, Cohen built on Bensimon’s statement, expressing that once the test is over she feels like the information in her brain is thrown out alongside the review sheets.

Another drawback is that many students feel they’ve forgotten how to be a student altogether. With the lack of consistent demands that tests bring comes a different mindset than one of a student hard at work. It’s difficult for many to get in the zone after being on what some may refer to as a “brain vacation” for six weeks. “I’m so used to not taking tests that now when I do have a test I don’t even remember how to study for it,” Bensimon expressed.

History teacher Mr. Engel said that he is still contemplating testing week and its effects. Nonetheless, he sees some drawbacks. “Having consistent testing throughout the weeks breaks up the monotony of school, giving students something different to do,” he said. “It also motivates them to get their acts together and actually show up and do things you might not want to do but feel you have to because someone is holding you directly accountable.” Mr. Engel also disclosed that he’s received the most feedback from his seniors, both honors and nonhonors alike, that they feel there’s too much time between testing weeks, alleviating too much pressure from them and thereby robbing them of “that sort of kick that drives them.”

Countering Mr. Engel’s statement, senior Hymie Gindi explained he feels that when tests were mixed in with everyday learning it was a distraction because students were preoccupied with tests and wanted to study during other classes. Gindi stated, “The old testing method was very disruptive to our actual goal in this school, which is to learn.” Gindi acknowledged the inertia that came with a lack of frequent testing, but ultimately declared that the new testing week setup “may make students lazy, but at the end of the day it’s better than making them unnecessarily anxious all the time.”

Seniors have not been shy about voicing their opinions on the matter. This has caused many to speculate whether their newfound laziness is a result of testing week or really just a bad case of senioritis. However, freshmen had similar feelings about testing week. Rachel Shamoelian expressed that she and her peers are simply unmotivated for six weeks and then become very overwhelmed and stressed during testing week.

This raises the question: is testing week hindering younger students’ ability to develop a healthy work ethic? According to Shamoelian, “A lot of us are just not trying. You come home and procrastinate your work and then get sleep-deprived as a result.” Freshman Lana Soffer added, “I get home and just have no motivation to do any of my homework.”

Of course, there are some students who feel differently. Senior Ronnie Hidary strongly disagreed with his peers’ statements and argued, “Testing week is giving students the opportunity to do more things. Personally, as someone who does a lot of extracurriculars, testing week hasn’t made me lazier but instead given me the time to pursue my other interests more deeply.” English department chair Ms. Bloom agreed that students should take advantage of the situation, and stated, “If it does give you a little bit of free time, read a book.”

Regardless, the loss of motivation has possessed many Flatbush students this year. Bensimon spoke for many students when she said, “Honestly, I just feel braindead.”