The Parent Imperfect is even more exhausted than usual after a two-day Human Rights Institute at work. Liz, Connie and I went to the annual celebration of El Día de los Muertos on Ridge St. That is a very nice celebration that draws a great group of people, but this year we weren’t even able to stay for the ofrenda. Connie was ready to come home early because tomorrow is the day she takes the ISEE.
This is, of course, the exam that will probably decide where she’ll be going to school for the next six years. Incredibly, despite her brother’s very difficult experience at the nation’s oldest public school, Connie seems interested in following in Vince’s footsteps.
When big brother was in sixth grade, he spent quite a bit of time preparing for the test. He went to a prep program at BLS for three weeks in the summer between fifth and sixth grade, and then took yet another prep course in the fall. He, too, had decided that some of his friends were going to be going to the nation’s oldest, so he wanted to do the same. Liz questioned the wisdom of this course, but I aided and abetted Vince in his efforts. In the end, he scored enough points on the test to be invited to the school. I remember vividly the day when he got the invitation to BLS. Vince was as excited as I’ve ever seen him.
Over the past few years, I’ve advised several people that they think long and hard about doing a lot of prep for the ISEE. The preparation offered by BLS is one thing, but the private prep has become very expensive and I’m convinced that it puts many youngsters in the nation’s oldest who might do better elsewhere.
When it came time to decide what Connie should do, we didn’t even consider a prep course for her. We were certain that she would do fine on the test, with or without. The problem is that the environment around her AWC class at the Irving has served to make her nervous because she hasn’t done the preparation that literally every other student has been doing. She has always been very relaxed about standardized tests, but she’s definitely stressed about this one. Probably trying to get her to take the test more seriously, one of her teachers told her that BLS is going to admit many fewer students this year. Another told her a story about a “brilliant” student who did very poorly on the ISEE, probably because she managed to get her answer sheet out of alignment with her test booklet.
She’s in bed now, but I doubt she’s sleeping very well. We’ll get her up early tomorrow, make her a nice breakfast and try to get her calmed down before the test. I’ll go to bed tonight wondering if we made a mistake by not enrolling her in at least the BLS prep course. At least that would have probably left her with her usual level of confidence about tests.
‘Twas the night before test time, and all through the house,
Father was squirming, feeling like a louse…