I’ve always wanted to learn to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Many years ago I figured out how to line up the top row and the second row using nothing but my fingers, but I could never get any farther. Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend, who recently bought me a cube, I finally unlocked its final secrets (with a little help from the algorithm cheat sheet included with the cube). I took about an hour and a half at school today memorizing the two moves that were foreign to me, and spent most of the rest of the day scrambling and solving the cube over and over again. This is my first recorded attempt – usually I can get it solved in about 3:10 or less, so I’m by no means a “speed cuber,” but nevertheless this accomplishment is a momentous occasion for me.
Perhaps more puzzling even than the Rubik’s Cube, though, is what I learned at school today. I was chatting with some music teachers from a local high school today and they were going on about a relatively new practice having something to do with professional skills development or something like that… I don’t exactly remember what it was called. Essentially, the music department had to get together and decide on a unified curriculum and assessment strategy for their freshman students. Next year, they have to do the same for sophomores. Never mind the fact that music is subjective, just as art is, the administration wants documented incremental growth! Never mind the fact that this school has freshmen in it’s best group and seniors in it’s lower groups, all freshmen must learn and be tested on the same information. Never mind that the school is only eight years old and has one of the top 10 choirs in the nation, there still must be a way to measure their improvement. Never mind that if the administrators attended any of the concerts throughout the year, improvement would be obvious! All that nonwithstanding, these department curriculum-forming meetings must take place.
The puzzling thing about this is that it reminds me strongly of the work I do in my secondary methods education class. One of the teachers I talked to said it was “…nothing but busy work. Someone in administration didn’t have enough to do and decided one day that we need more assessment.” I don’t think there’s a better way to describe my education classes this semester. “We love teaching, and we’re pretty good at it, [doesn't national acclaim mean anything anymore?] so just let us teach for crying out loud!”
One step forward, two steps back… :[


