2 thoughts on “Absorbed”

  1. When I was in Grade 12 we had final “Dilpoma” exams that counted 100% for our high school grade. I whipped through the multiple choice portion and got to the “reading” portion and the selection that year was an excerpt from George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra. Which I had never encountered before and I loved it. I thought, “How did he do that?!” and went back and re-read it trying to figure out how he had put words together to make me laugh be totally engage in such a short excerpt. And I laughed again at the funny bit and examined how he set that line up and so on until the exam supervisor came by and asked, “what are you doing?” because no one else was laughing. And I said, look how he sets this line up already way back here.” And he said, “Robert, you’re writing a timed exam”. And I looked up and around at the other 70 people in the room with their heads down, frowning, and went, “Oh yeah. Right” and went back to work answering the mc questions on the passage. I think I only got about 75% on the exam, so a disappointing grade for me in English–but worth it. Introduction to Shaw.
    I still have those moments working as an editor because some of my clients are really good, and I also kept that experience in mind the ten years I worked as a professional test developer. I designed pretty good tests, but I never allowed that to kid myself that tests actually tested a kids passion for literature….

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