This page includes a poem, photos, comments and drawings from college, and high school students inspired by the installation

Art can play a role for advocacy and change.

If you are interested in more information about the installation Pick Up Your Pencils, Begin documentation of the four year project is on my web site.

Math classes at Castilleja School came to study the mathematical concepts of the bell curve.

This bell curve is a divided into 9 stanines. The center 3 stanines have the most pencils. This represents that standardized tests are nationally normed so that most students test performance places them in the center 3 stanines. Students that "deviate from the norm" on standardized tests fall in the outer stanines.

Poem by Richard A. Burn's, novelist & poet, student at DeAnza College, 2012 — Poem by **Richard A. Burn's**, novelist & poet, student at DeAnza College, 2012

The drawings below are from art classes taught by Deborah Trilling, Castilleja School, Palo Alto.

"Some people's comments and ideas made me think about things I never had thought about in the past. I learned so much by listening to other students' opinions on the standardized testing as well as their educational successes." - Jordan Fowler

"Standardized testing shows a part of me, but not all of me." - Maddie, 9th grade

"Should you be labeled as a color/number/score? Is there such a way to do both? I love your art and everything you are trying to do to spark discussion and think of equal assessments." - Student comment from The Pencil Symposium

Pick UP Your Pencils, Begin at Anita Seipp Gallery, Castilleja School where it was photographed for the article in American Craft.

Funding for the video of local high schools students discussing the impact of standardized testing and the EOP provided by Applied Materials Excellence in the Arts Grants, a program of Arts Council of Silicon Valley.

STUDENT RESPONSES to Pick Up Your Pencils, Begin