Tuesday, February 17, 2004

I just got the terms that I need to teach my students for the standardized test in May (brace yourself for many entries on this damn test, there are sure to be a million).

The words that I taught my kids last week were (for some perspective): rank, conflict, extraordinary, etc.

The words I have to teach them for the test are: cliche, lethargic, dubious, discordant, cutterage, cryptography, etc.

Do you see the divide I see? Who are these children in the state who know the word cutterage? Where do they live? Because I don't know that word, or didn't until I looked it up. My students are not prepared for these kinds of vocabulary words...and as much work as I do and all, I don't think I can get them there before May.

It is so unfair. I feel like it is so obviously unfair, but it is allowed to go on. I guess I better go back to my classroom and figure out how to make learning the word cutterage fun...by the by, the definition of that word is "the surgical scraping of a body cavity". Thank goodness they are going to finally have a word for describing that! ¶ 5:48 AM