Something that I have taken away from this book, (amongst many other things), is that testing is not something we can really rely on. I think of things like the SATs, where most people would say, "well SATs don't determine how smart you are, they just determine how good you are at test taking". Still, if you told that same person that you got a very high score, they would immediately say and maybe even think that you actually were very smart. It's a bit different than the tests that Bérubé talks about. After all, these tests that are taken on Jamie are influenced by a lot of external factors that are sometimes not taken into consideration. This takes me back to page 131 where Jamie is being tested for his hearing. Bérubé expresses his frustration, "Well, first of all, Jamie didn't respond to the voice half the time because it wasn't one of his parents'voices. Second, we rarely called him 'James,'and we never said 'uh-oh.'Third, he turned half the time simply to see the elephant and/or monkey, and not because he heard a voice." It even begins to frustrate me, because these tests aren't just tests!

The results of these tests supposedly determine the future of a child and consequently the concerns of its parents. After our class on Monday I became even more skeptical about what tests can really determine and their accuracy. Taking tests in class is one thing - taking tests in a doctor's office is completely different. Much is at stake and that includes the mental as well as the physical. It seems to be a familiar topic - tests. In some of the books that we have already read in this class, people have been told by their medical professionals that their children won't be able to certain things, based on tests. Sometimes they will tell the parent very bluntly the worst possible situation that is likely to occur. And somehow, after stressing and killing themselves over what the doctors say, their children end up fine and sometimes things are much better than ever anticipated. Then I begin to think, I can't believe these parents were crushed and in pain for so long, so unnecessarily. It's like when the obstetrician tells Bérubé and his wife to consider sending Jamie to an institution and act as if he had never happened. The weight of that kind of decision seems so light on the obstetrician that it makes me think that this is definitely NOT something she should ever have a say in. I find it unfair and frustrating to think that people stress over the worst before ever given a chance for the better. I'm glad that a lot of what Bérubé has written about shows the opposite side of the worst and also the fact that tests aren't exactly as telling as they seem to be.

Bérubé's book seem to remind me of Bernstein in many ways. In the end, at the epilogue, I think I have found out why. Bérubé says that his goal is to represent Jamie as best as he can. Bernstein said the same thing in her introduction of Rachel in the World. Both authors show that they really have tried to capture their children and I believe it's because they have a message to say and this is the best way they believe it can be told.