<p>In defense of the teaching of bubbling...when they test for the first time you do have to practice with them. (although some of the tests don't require below third grade to bubble) Granted, you only have to teach them once or twice. It's not a daily portion of your day like math or anything.</p>
<p>I thought it sounded stupid until many years ago I was a naive first year teacher of second graders in a low socio-economic area. I gave them a test that required bubbling. I explained how to do it and demonstrated it. I passed out the test and let them go to it. Pleased with myself, I initially didn't look that hard at what they were doing...and boy was I surprised when I looked around!!! What I see as such as easy concept was apparently not to them. They were reading the questions and choosing their answers and then bubbling that letter on whatever random question number they chose. They were all over the place! I finally had to stop the entire process and go over it again and do some practice bubbling on the board with them.</p>
<p>So as silly as it seems, it's a skill they do have to learn just like using scissors and holding a pencil correctly in preschool or kindergarten.</p>
<p>(It's like the first time I asked a question that year such as....it's four o'clock now. What time will it be in one hour? They said things like 6:30, 8:00, 2:15. I learned quickly that sometimes we forget that we had to learn things that seem so obvious to us now!)</p>