A whole year?

I wanna drive

Tomorrow morning I have to meet a guy in a parking lot and give him 55 bucks in cash.

Chloe's taking the driving test for her license, but because it's been so long since she had driver's ed we're paying the driver's ed teacher for a one-hour lesson and the use of their easy-to-drive little car for the test. He didn't specify why he needs cash and I didn't ask, but he did say that 98% of students who opt to use that service pass the test on the first try. I seriously doubt they've ever done any statistical analysis to back up that claim.

It's funny how "must haves" vary with the culture. Chloe couldn't get her driver's license before her exchange because she didn't turn 16 until the day before she left for Spain. There, kids don't have driver's licenses and don't really need them (and she was told by her host father that it costs about $2,000, in which case my 17 year old wouldn't be getting hers, either). Here, everyone 16 and over has their license and Chloe, apparently, is the only loser who doesn't, and she's - horrors - 17. She's informed me she'll likely be scarred for life by her unfortunate lack of licensing. Then she said she'd add it to the list of topics to discuss with her future therapist.

She spent a whole year with Spanish kids her age and the only time driving came up was when they'd discuss differences between there and here. In fact, one of the things she misses the most is being able to walk to wherever she needs to go. Helps to live in a city for that, though. Here she could walk for five miles and still not do much more than buy a pack of smokes and a newspaper. And it doesn't help that her entire family on her mother's side is obsessed with all things automotive.

Now, she wants her license so bad she can hardly sit still, as if the license itself will spawn a car and unlimited insurance and fuel. But I remember very well what it was like to get a driver's license: I was there on my sixteenth birthday to take the test. When she passes, she'll be a licensed driver and we'll have even more reason to finish rebuilding the Jetta that is gracing the driveway.

Interpretation validation

A week and a half ago Chloe took the written part of a test to become a DSHS certified medical interpreter in Spanish. DSHS is the Washington state social services agency. We still haven't been able to figure out in what situations the certified interpreters are used because no one at the agency that administers the program in our area seems to know (DSHS in this state is not a well-oiled machine). She was told that she'd get the results in a month. Today she got a letter saying she'd passed. Now she has to take the oral part and when she passes that she'll be certified. In May and June are the tests to be come a Washington State Courts certified interpreter (any criminal defendant who needs an interpreter must be provided one by law). After she's certified she can put herself on a list of interpreters statewide and hope to get some work out of it. It would be a nice college gig because it's on a freelance basis and the pay is about $45 per hour, a nice byproduct of her having to learn Spanish on the fly last year. You just never know what areas of your life will be influenced by your exchange experience.

Stop the world, I want to get off

Having to take the required American history and English classes that she missed last year along with all of the required senior classes means lots and lots of work for Chloe and she doesn't even have math this trimester. Although she complained about all the studying she had to do last year, those seem like the good old days of no assignments and no long-term projects. On top of that is the SAT and ACT tests that she couldn't take last year (SAT is tomorrow, ACT is in two weeks, same day as the Homecoming dance). Next week she's taking the first part of the state test to become certified as an interpreter for the state social services agency. Also next week she starts her community service project helping a native Spanish speaker with her English. And the seniors at her school have to compile scholarship notebooks which require a lot of work and reflection.

And, she has to think about college which means applications to complete, essays to write, and recommendations to request. It's going to be an intense few months for Chloe. Today was a field trip to the college fair in Seattle so she got lots of information about potential colleges but is worried that she doesn't have a plan (even though we've told her she doesn't have to have a plan today). Tonight she said she's not sure if she really wants to go to a "real college with sororities and fraternities and all of that." At a loss for what else there might be, I asked what the alternative to a "real college" is: "Not growing up?"

More old stuff

More backfilled posts with photos - from after the pope's appearance to the top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica - begin here and go to More views from up there (all July 10).

So much work to produce

Last year Chloe complained about all the studying she had to do, but she had almost no assignments or projects. I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but my experience with school-age kids is that they aren't required to do much studying (and, like me, no one has ever taught them how to study), but rather lots of projects and papers that require research and hands-on learning. Rote memorization is considered bad because it doesn't engage the students and so they don't retain enough of what they learn. Maybe so, but in the short term it's beginning to look preferable to being responsible for daily assignments and multiple projects to work on requiring research and - horrors - critical thinking. And then there's the SAT and the ACT that she couldn't take last year (which means she's missing one year of American education going into the tests) and scheduling a community-service project. Even though it's not a good idea, it's so much easier to be told what to do and then do it without having to think about it too much.

Before last year I would have agreed that engaging students in a subject teaches them much more than simply studying, memorizing, and passing tests, after which much of the information is forgotten. But we had a smart exchange student who is a product of the memorization system and was much more well-rounded - and more advanced - in her knowledge than most students I know here who are a few years older. It's become a cliché, but school here (in her third language) was much easier for her than school at home. She was shocked that Chloe didn't know Dali or his work: "But those paintings are famous!" Were she and her equally-as-smart sister anomalies? We hear all the time that European students are much more advanced than Americans, but then why do so many of them come to America for their university educations? It's hard to compare because exchange students are not representative of all students.

I have discovered, though, that if I had to chose between producing a critical thinker and one acquainted with surrealist artists, I'd chose the critical thinker. It's easier to learn about art at a later date than it is to learn to think critically.