....and now for an "I hate Virginia" moment.
I think I have discovered why Virginia has to import qualified teachers.
I have spent today (and will spend tomorrow) studying for the three state licensing board tests I will be taking next Saturday. Two are tests of basic reading and writing. The practice reading test was straight-forward, if oddly weighted down with passages about non-WASP cultural practices.
The practice writing test was bizarre. It requires writing a summary of an article because, apparently, summarizing in written form is essential for Virginia teachers. I can honestly say that I never, in 5 years, wrote a summary while teaching in New York. The test also requires the standard 5-paragraph persuasive essay, the bane of college professors everywhere. It is by far the most boring form of essay writing. The funniest bit, though, was the the example of a strong response. Besides being woefully informal (I was taught NEVER to use contractions in an essay), it has several major grammatical defects, including at least 1 run-on sentence.
One wonders, "Shall one eschew the use of poly-syllabic verbage in favor of a more simplistic rendering of one's opinion in order to facilitate accessiblity to the text by those grading (who undoubtedly graduated under the afore-mentioned flawed educational system), thus maximizing the potential for successfully navigating the clearly inadequate system, yet betraying the principle of always performing to the maximum of one's potential?"
One sighs. Then one inevitibly answers, "Yes."
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