The song of the day is “why you’d want to live here” by death cab... I’ve been getting very anti-la reactions from my friends here as they learn about my new plans. One thing that sucks about plans is the number of times you have to repeat them to people, because the more times you say it, the more ridiculous it sounds. The cracks in one’s plan seem to be more and more obvious as you go over it again and again. Oy vey.
So, I’m taking this stupid test on Saturday, the California Basic Educations Standards Test, or CBEST. I’ve been doing some practicing in this workbook I got, and let’s just say that the basic education standards aren’t setting the bar particularly high. One question asked “What is the definition of the word ‘major’ as used in ‘major networks’?: A. officer B. large C. subject D. legal E. important” And I’m sure that’s probably one of the easiest questions I’m going to come across, but I would hope any graduating eighth grader would be able to answer that, let alone the teacher.
I was thinking earlier, and perhaps this is elitist and bastardly of me, but I wonder what the statistics are in terms of a correlation between someone’s college GPA and their CBEST pass rate. I figure at some point, people in a certain GPA bracket pass without exception, and if this is so, shouldn’t you be able to become exempt from the test? To rephrase, what, exactly, is this test testing that hasn’t been covered in college, or in the myriad other standardized tests taken before in my life? The answer: poopyface.
Of course, I’ve complained about how this test is sooooo beneath me, and now I’ve found that I think I left my admissions ticket in New York. (There’s always that one thing that gets left behind... too bad I didn’t think of it sooner). So, I guess I’m not that smart after all. I exploded the contents of my suitcase looking for it, which is something I’m not proud of, being a guest in someone’s home. In the end, though, I’m feeling hard pressed to get super upset about it... teaching has taken it’s place for the moment as a fall back position, and in a worst-case scenario where they flatly refuse to let me take the test without the little slip of paper with my name on it, I’m out $40, which sucks, but at least it’s not $100. Anyways, I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time on hold tomorrow morning trying to get in touch with the people. It would be a kind of bureaucratic perfect storm, if they didn’t let me take the test... I need a test, which is super-easy, to prove I’m up to standards to be a teacher, a profession which is extremely understaffed; however, I’m missing the piece of paper they mailed to my house saying I’m supposed to take the test, and therefore, cannot take the test, and cannot become a teacher. Yes, yes, I shouldn’t have forgotten the paper, but well. There it is.
I was walking today with Katherine, the daughter of the family I’m staying with, and we were talking about various cities one might live in. She’s going off to college in 2007, and so the various metro- cosmo- and regular old polises are at her fingertips. We got to comparing New York and San Francisco, as I am so wont to do, and we got to talking about smells. I think it’s no secret that new york more or less stinks to high heaven, but one does get used to the smell, so that it’s only neglected garbage dumpsters and sewage problems that really get to you. San Francisco, though, whether because of the ocean or the higher tree to concrete ratio, or whatever, doesn’t smell like that; at least, not most of it. There are the sketchy parts, of course. Sarah T and I walked through the tenderloin on Turk street, and I could almost get that New York whiff.
But what really got me was how, on the MUNI train after landing yesterday, I was sitting next to the door, and it opened at the first above-ground stop, and the air that wafted in was so unbelievably clean and flowery... man. It was the breathing equivalent of when you drink a cold glass of something, and you feel the cold liquid snaking down your esophagus. Anyway. I’m done. Sorry for the long absence, I’m going to try and be better about it. I’ll fail, sure, but I’ll try.
Hasta mañana.
So, I’m taking this stupid test on Saturday, the California Basic Educations Standards Test, or CBEST. I’ve been doing some practicing in this workbook I got, and let’s just say that the basic education standards aren’t setting the bar particularly high. One question asked “What is the definition of the word ‘major’ as used in ‘major networks’?: A. officer B. large C. subject D. legal E. important” And I’m sure that’s probably one of the easiest questions I’m going to come across, but I would hope any graduating eighth grader would be able to answer that, let alone the teacher.
I was thinking earlier, and perhaps this is elitist and bastardly of me, but I wonder what the statistics are in terms of a correlation between someone’s college GPA and their CBEST pass rate. I figure at some point, people in a certain GPA bracket pass without exception, and if this is so, shouldn’t you be able to become exempt from the test? To rephrase, what, exactly, is this test testing that hasn’t been covered in college, or in the myriad other standardized tests taken before in my life? The answer: poopyface.
Of course, I’ve complained about how this test is sooooo beneath me, and now I’ve found that I think I left my admissions ticket in New York. (There’s always that one thing that gets left behind... too bad I didn’t think of it sooner). So, I guess I’m not that smart after all. I exploded the contents of my suitcase looking for it, which is something I’m not proud of, being a guest in someone’s home. In the end, though, I’m feeling hard pressed to get super upset about it... teaching has taken it’s place for the moment as a fall back position, and in a worst-case scenario where they flatly refuse to let me take the test without the little slip of paper with my name on it, I’m out $40, which sucks, but at least it’s not $100. Anyways, I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time on hold tomorrow morning trying to get in touch with the people. It would be a kind of bureaucratic perfect storm, if they didn’t let me take the test... I need a test, which is super-easy, to prove I’m up to standards to be a teacher, a profession which is extremely understaffed; however, I’m missing the piece of paper they mailed to my house saying I’m supposed to take the test, and therefore, cannot take the test, and cannot become a teacher. Yes, yes, I shouldn’t have forgotten the paper, but well. There it is.
I was walking today with Katherine, the daughter of the family I’m staying with, and we were talking about various cities one might live in. She’s going off to college in 2007, and so the various metro- cosmo- and regular old polises are at her fingertips. We got to comparing New York and San Francisco, as I am so wont to do, and we got to talking about smells. I think it’s no secret that new york more or less stinks to high heaven, but one does get used to the smell, so that it’s only neglected garbage dumpsters and sewage problems that really get to you. San Francisco, though, whether because of the ocean or the higher tree to concrete ratio, or whatever, doesn’t smell like that; at least, not most of it. There are the sketchy parts, of course. Sarah T and I walked through the tenderloin on Turk street, and I could almost get that New York whiff.
But what really got me was how, on the MUNI train after landing yesterday, I was sitting next to the door, and it opened at the first above-ground stop, and the air that wafted in was so unbelievably clean and flowery... man. It was the breathing equivalent of when you drink a cold glass of something, and you feel the cold liquid snaking down your esophagus. Anyway. I’m done. Sorry for the long absence, I’m going to try and be better about it. I’ll fail, sure, but I’ll try.
Hasta mañana.
posted by Charlie Beckerman at 22:36
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