the boychick begins his week of standardised testing that is TCAP today. it`s funny i had recently arrived when he was doing it last year and the girls had their own batch of equivalency examinations.
in Trinidad at the end of elementary school system you take an examination that determines your choice of high school education based on how well you do. in my days it was called the Common Entrance exam and the higher your total score the better your chances of attending a prestigious parochial high school. these days it`s called the SEA and the intensity and price of failure is even greater. my elder daughter took it last year and went to the school of her choice and mine, my younger daughter took it about six weeks ago and we`re fairly confident that she`s heading to the same school. this ends their standardised testing on a national level for at least five years until it`s time for their O` Level exams.
the boychick, on the other handm is stuck in this testing rut annually. last year i very nearly pitched a fit when his then teacher marked an essay he work diligently on poorly based on his grammar. according to her and last year`s TCAPs the boychick has problems with sentence structure. which seems kind of odd, see the volume of reading he does, the fact that his mother has a Masters in English and i`m a grammar nazi. in fact it`s not that he has a problem, but they have an issue with the fact that he can construct complex sentences at this grade level. the boychick does not write staccato sentences. they want him to write like this. he was punished for not writing like this.
the joys of standardised testing, if you don`t fit in the box, we`ll force fit you. what`s funny is that at some point someone asked the boychick if he found the TCAPs difficult and he replied, “it can`t be difficult they`re not supposed to leave anyone behind.” and that pretty much sums it up, in order to make sure no one gets left behind they`re hampering the rest of the children.
not all children progress at the same rate, granted, but when you the pace you set is for the slowest child the rest of the children who get what they`re supposed to be working on are going to get bored and distracted while they wait and that`s not going to help them learn anything either.
i want to thank the academy and all the little people for all the feedback i’ve gotten so far, this has been my lifelong dream… blah, blah, blah, blah…
ok, so i’m having a little too much fun. but this week is shaping up quite nicely, the good news abounds, i’m a little cautious, because after all this good news something is almost guaranteed to bite me in the ass.
i don’t want to harp, but i hate my fucking job. it bites ass. i spent most of today, working on some logos without a real brief. that’s like someone telling you… draw a picture, not telling you what they want to see and then telling you they don’t like it.
more to come later. it’s time for the mail check and then off to watch charmed on TNT.
a brief word about cable television…
why is it the more channels you have the less you have to watch. i’m not one of the millions addicted to law and order so after the x-files and charmed on tnt. i’m left with skimming the channels looking for something to watch. i’m avoiding the news, sorry did i say news the propaganda channels, still searching… nevermind, switched off the tv.
listening to drift and die by puddle of mudd as i read the vapid posts on the guardian boards.
my god, where do they find these people, i have never come across a more self righteous, self involved, bigoted, close-minded people. oh lord. i get the feeling that some of them are very young, but if you try to share an opinion they don’t agree with they resort to name calling. sigh, i guess it was too much to hope for intelligent conversation.
i think this would be a good a time as any to put in my pick for the greatest short story of all time…
“There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.
I will go to Samarra and there death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it and dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”
email me your opinions and picks.
why are people so afraid of sexuality?
anything that they don’t approve of is deemed obscene or gross. i find pedophelia and anything involving children offensive, but excluding that anything two consenting adults decide to do on their own that’s fine. there are a couple of things that i haven’t done and have no interest in trying but that doesn’t mean i’m going pass judgement on them.
where do these judgemental, prudes come from? and why must they foist their backwards opinions on people? is there a special training facility for these morons? and what is troubling is not just men, there are women who encourage this behaviour.
hmmm, i’m not being much better here, am i? sigh. sometimes i get carried away.
my advice to you, go out and be happy.
