The First Lady’s test anxiety and how she is helping countless students
December 21st, 2009
Michelle Obama had test anxiety.
In a talk she gave to high school students, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke about her own struggles with test anxiety. “I was never a great standardized test taker,” she said. “So from a personal level, I would always get nervous and feel a great deal of anxiety over test-taking. So it was always a point of frustration for me personally.”
In talking about herself she is helping countless students across the country and around the world. Test anxiety is a very common problem and one that disempowers many students at all ages. For one of the most significant public figures in the world to be open about her own struggles with testing, and to have accomplished all that she has, shines a light into a subject that many students find hard to discuss and for which they receive little help.
In the next few posts I’d like to reflect on Mrs. Obama’s willingness to discuss her experience and how it actually can help many many others. Thank you First Lady, for being so human!
And thank you, Lynn Sweet, in Politics Daily, for covering the story. This kind of sensitive, humane reporting is helpful to countless students, parents and teachers. To read Lynn Sweet’s article, go to http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/18/what-made-michelle-obama-anxious-and-nervous/
