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Friday, March 8, 2013

Slice of Life #8- Some random thoughts the week before testing




Next week, we begin two weeks of state testing. And aside from my boys, that's pretty much all I am thinking about. Wanted to write something coherent, maybe even a poem that I could double dip for Poetry Friday,  but mostly just have a bunch of random fragments floating around in my head.


Snowy Saturday promised.
Should clean house.  Taxes waiting.
No thanks. I’d rather read.

****************

This weekend
I will sit down
And try to make sense of the packet
my accountant sent
in January
I think it’s the adult version
Of the state reading test.
****************************



I wonder 
how many adults
create total chaos 
move all the furniture
cover all the pictures
unplug the internet
totally alter their normal routines
then sit down
at their desks
to do important work.
Because that's what our kids will do next week. 

I wonder 
how many adults
pick up a text--
perhaps a technical journal
or a magazine 
on a hobby they have never tried
and read
with perfect comprehension?
Because that's what our kids will do next week. 
 
And I wonder 
how many adults
Write brilliantly
In 60 minutes
On a random topic
Of someone else’s choosing?
Because that's what our kids will do next week.  

And I wonder how many adults
Remember the formulas
For the surface area
and volume
Of a cylinder
Without sneaking to the internet
To look them up?
 Because that's what our kids will do next week. 

11 comments:

Katherine Sokolowski said...

This line made me laugh:

I think it’s the adult version
Of the state reading test.

And you are completely right on the questioning of how many adults would do what our kids will do next week.

Rissa said...

Your thoughts are so important about testing....why isn't anyone listening to us?

elsie said...

They may be random thoughts to you but they are poetically versed. Good luck with the taxes (filled in my forms with several question marks for the accountant) and for the kids next week.

Linda B said...

I was going to compliment the same line Carol. Who writes those things? I'm sorry for all the kids in our world and the testing. There's gotta be a better way!

Mindi Rench said...

I've been thinking many of these same thoughts as my own children take the ISAT test this week. Ugh.

Nanc said...

love this...Write brilliantly
In 60 minutes
On a random topic

How many of us could even do that and say something important and, of course, organized?

Tara @ A Teaching Life said...

Wow...you've put it all in perspective. Our poor kids...

Michelle said...

I love how your random thoughts came together - because that's what our kids do!

I laughed out loud when I read the lines about your tax packed being the adult version of the state reading test. So true. Good luck with that and good luck to all that your kids will do next week!

Cathy said...

It is late and I've been reading for awhile. I should attempt a coherent thought, but instead I'm going leave some random thoughts in my comment. (It seemed fitting.)

First of all, you and I must agree on taxes. I always wonder how I can have two college degrees but agonize over taxes. If they are some form of reading assessment I fail miserably.

Cleaning isn't all it's cracked up to be. The house just gets dirty again.

Books are relaxing.

Time for spring.

I'm sure you likely intended your final section to be a poem and it is a terrific one. Who does turn their world upside down to do important work? (Wait, that is sort of how I do my taxes.) I love the repetition of "I wonder" and "Because that's what our kids will do next week."

Cathy

Kay said...

I love the connections between the adult reading of taxes (most people hire someone to pass that reading test) and what we ask our kids to do. I've been stewing over a month now over a comment made at a conference I attended. The presenter insisted that the state assessments are right on because that's how adults are expected to read and write for their jobs. I'm still asking, "Really?" I've never been asked to write on a random topic or read a random selection to answer multiple choice questions.

Angela said...

I love how you distinguish the process of learning from testing here. Poetry was the perfect vehicle for it. Thanks for sharing. I have to do my taxes too. Sigh.