How do I keep teaching when the system reduces kids to test scores?

You came into this to see and shape young minds, and instead you're measured by numbers that miss most of what you do. The frustration is real. But don't let the system's blindness become yours — just because it can't see the real work doesn't mean the real work stopped mattering. Hold two things at once. Meet the required stuff well, because ignoring it doesn't help any kid. But protect the part that can't be measured as the real center: the student who felt seen, the confidence you built, the mind that woke up. That's what teaching actually is, whether or not any report card records it. You can do your duty inside an imperfect system without pretending it's fine and without walking away. Give the kids in front of you what you can, against everything that says just process them. Take your worth from the seeing, not the scores. No test can grade that, and it's the real reason you teach.