Why Standardized Testing Is Important

The essence of an individual is based on their past: their memories, their reactions, their pain and their pleasures. Like a mosaic, these minuscule virtues can be put together to define a larger personality. Even from this perspective, the difference between details and the big picture play an important role. Throughout every individual’s lifespan they must set their perspective and decide which they would rather focus on: the big picture or the details that make it up. In Anna Quindlen’s writing, "Homeless" she states that “Sometimes I think we would be better off if we forgot about the broad strokes and concentrated on the details” (194). Focusing on the details is more beneficial than looking at the bigger picture. By paying more attention to the details than the overall picture in life situations, individuals learn to problem solve and analyze easily: thus creating strategies and extending their knowledge in complex subjects.

By paying attention to details, individuals learn to problem solve more thoroughly. Learning can be brought down to the brain’s right and left hemisphere. Those who are deemed left brained tend to pay attention to the details and look at things linearly: these individuals draw their conclusions from what they see and know. In contrast, those who are right brained determine a conclusion after looking at the whole of a problem, often without paying much attention to detail. Those who are right brained are more impulsive and believed to be more imaginative. Often, it is said that being left brained is unimaginative or one dimensional and thus, it does not contribute to society. Yet, virtually all scholastic processes in society stemmed from those who were left brain thinkers: mathematicians, scientists a...

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...re based on exact things within a text, instead of being based off summary. Details are helpful in virtually all subjects, even foreign language. Language is best learned by finding similarities between the known and the unknown. Through details, complexity is taken down to a degree that the human brain can process: thus, it is the most beneficial perspective an individual could have.

Works Cited

Hamilton, John T. “Learning German.” Professor of German and Comparative Literature. Harvard University, 2014.

Hopper, Carolyn. “Left/Right Processing.” 14 December 2013. The Study Skills Help Page. Web. 25 November 2014.

“Observation and Workplace Observation Comparison.” 13 November 2013. ACT Workkeys. Web. 25 November 2014.

Quindlen, Anna. “Homeless,” The Brief Bedford Reader eleventh ed. Ed. Kennedy, X.J., et al. Boston: Bedford, 2012. Print.