a two for humor
Even though Isa is currently in private school, we've been trying to get the L.A. public school system to give her an I.Q. test (they don't call it that), in case we ever want to go back into the system. It took over two years. But they finally gave her the test a couple weeks ago.
As part of the process, Isa's current (private school) teacher, who I've had issues with, had to fill out a form, ranking Isa in various categories that correlate with giftedness. Under "ability to use humor in various situations," on a scale of one to five, she gave Isa a two (seldom to never).
I hate to pull rank on Isa's teacher, but I've been in some great comedy rooms, and Isa would fit right in. She might get too much food on her face, but, even then, she would still be using humor, she'd just be gross.
Isa's current teacher, on the other hand, would not survive in a comedy room. She's a former CIO at a health firm whose job, I'm starting to suspect, was turning down claims. She made a mid life career change and finds Isa's class of ten to be unwieldy. I have never seen her say anything that so much as resembles a joke. No wonder she doesn't think Isa's funny.
Labels: Isa
posted by John Levenstein at
5:51 PM
11 Comments:
The only way to know for sure would be to have Isa take a Standardized Humor Test.
You mean the one that's part of the No Child Left Behind Humor?
To be clear, we got the form back in a packet; I think the teacher assumed it was confidential- and I assume we got it back accidentally. I liken it to getting the full paper trail of a claim rejection. It's clear this new, more efficient business-like method of 'claim rejection' in the educational setting certainly benefits all at hand. I'm glad there's a CIO in charge now!
Now, I don't know this Nurse Ratched of the private school world, but let me make one thing clear. Isa is FUNNY. Period. End of story.
One of the best laughs I had in 2007 was on Halloween night when I was taking Isa from house to house trick-or-treating on my block. When we got to the house of a former writer colleague of John's (Abraham, we'll call him for the sake of this story... and also because that's his name) upon recognizing Isa he said, "Isa, don't you remember me? It's Abraham, I met you before." Isa replied very matter-of-factly, "No." Laugh #1 for me. Then, as we were leaving, Abraham said, "Hey, Isa, aren't you going to say bye to me???" Isa rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated, and said, "Okay, bye random guy I don't remember." HUGE LAUGH #2, and not just for me, but also for the two guy buddies standing by Abraham who were delighted by the sassy young gal in the chicken suit who had so deftly put the Hollywood hotshot writer in his place. Touché, Private School Nurse Ratched!
Oh, and also, let's see this so called "teacher" design, shoot, and edit stop motion animation short films on her PC.
I'm still waiting... yeah, I didn't think so. SNAP!
Just found in Isa's homework, where she had to write sentences using vocabulary words:
I dignify the doodle as a math test answer.
That's the beginning of a great kids' poem ala Dr. Suess. Great alliteration. I've never seen dignify and doodle together before, and I have to say I like it.
the worst part about isa getting a "two" was that "one" stood for something like "don't know/haven't had occasion to observe," so "two" was actually the lowest possible score (happy birthday, chris!)
Which was the vocabulary word? Dignify or doodle? Or both?
Thanks for the birthday wishes, John. It was a good one. I got a new shirt, a GPS device for my car, and a 5 week old daughter. All with gift receipts in case I don't like them. Sweet!
Frank, I have no idea. Here's the next sentence:
I love the quietness of the classroom (at times).
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