I visited West Elementary to take more pictures for their webpage, which I’m designing. The older kids were hams about it, wanting to have their picture made. I saw Mrs. Orange, an old teacher of my sister’s. She remembered me, or at least acted like she did.
The kids were busy earlier with their TCAP tests….which must be the equivalent of Achivement tests we had when I was in school. Archivement tests were meant to tell you how smart (or dumb) you were. It was fairly grueling for kids and was only a taste of what we’d have to go through with ACT tests in our high school years. Tests are supposed to standardize things. The problem is that people who write the tests are pretty ignorant of how things really are. Someone judged to be an idiot might just be doing fairly well in school and doesn’t need a Standard Achievement test to tell them how stupid they are. Remember kids, fill in the circles with a number 2 pencil.
I suspect West Elementary School had the same architect/builder as Lakeview Elementary (my alma mater). I was told that West was built years before Lakeview. Yet the same setup is there…the lettering on the outside of the building; the color of the tiles on the bathroom; the whole setup. It was all very familiar, yet different. In any case both schools are at least 25 years old, if not older.
I kinda got antsy when I got home and found a really good picture of some West kids…yet had one kid doing the ole pinky finger in the corner of his mouth pose. I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of naughty sign, so I asked a friend of mine hip to culture. It’s a Dr. Evil (Austin Powers) reference. Haven’t not seen the movie, I wasn’t sure what the pinky thing was. But it’s all clean, you know. Or as clean as a PG movie can be.
I have to be careful about this type of stuff. In 1983 one kid flashed the bird during a class picture of my sister’s 6th grade class. The yearbook staff didn’t realize it and it showed up in the yearbook. So the kid got in big trouble about it and the annual staff was left cleaning egg off their faces.