Update

Traveled to Home State last week for a meeting of the career-changers program 'winners' (i.e., those of us who made it through the process to be officially in the program). The program director went out of her way (again) to note that some of the people in the program probably won't be placed in a school until as late as January. However, this time, she went out of her way to indicate that I, with an interest in high school math, and already qualified to begin teaching (by virtue of an undergraduate degree in the subject), will not encounter that problem, but will instead be assured of a place in the classroom in September. So that's good news.

Of course, I really want to be in Current State because that's where E and KB are, but it's good to know I have a place to work come September even if nothing comes through in Current State. My expectations in that regard have swung back to believing I may not get an offer in Current State -- many counties are increasing class size and taking other measures to reduce costs, given the current economic climate, along with the fact that state revenues are down dramatically from last year, with no immediate prospect for improvement on that score. In fact, some counties are now reducing the property value assessments (because, of course, property values are in fact way down), which will further reduce school funding.

Meanwhile, I've been studying for the General Knowledge portion of the ACE for Home State. I am exempt from that portion of the exam in Current State by virtue of my SAT and ACT scores from 30 years ago, but Home State insists teachers actually take the test. I bought a study guide, expecting to sail through it and then take the laughably easy actual test. Not so fast, my friend. Yes, the math portion is laughably easy. But the reading portion is not so much hard as very tricky. The drill is to read a passage of 2 - 3 paragraphs, then answer several multiple-choice questions about it. Should be a piece of cake... but the choices are not 3 wrong answers and one correct one, they're typically along the lines of one wrong answer, 2 correct but very specific answers and one correct but more general answer. They're looking for the generalization. Or they ask what the passage implies, then give a wrong answer, a couple of answers that are directly stated in the passage, and one answer that is borderline, but potentially implied. They're looking for that one.

Similarly for the vocabulary / grammar section. I was expecting "Find the error in the sentence: She gave the test to John and I." Instead, I get "The main concerns of the mostly aristocratic clergy must be the evocation of piety among the congregation and overseeing good works in the community." Hmm... 'evocation of piety' seems goofy, but I can't find a grammatical error there. Could 'mostly aristocratic clergy' be flawed? Is it possible to be mostly aristocratic? Maybe the issue is that the sentence doesn't make it clear whether most of the clergy are aristocratic or that all of them are partially aristocratic. Or maybe 'evocation' is wrong. Does VOCATION have two front hooks? Damn, I should have studied the eight-to-make-nine stems harder, back when I was playing Scrabble. Nope. Turns out, the error here is that the clause structure doesn't match -- the clergy's concerns should be either "evoking / overseeing" or "the evocation / the oversight." Great. I'm clearly unqualified to be a high school math teacher unless I can immediately spot and correct that kind of shoddy sentence construction by my students. How else can they hope to succeed in a world in which the national conversation is on a level characterized by Senator Grassley's (R - IA) Twitter post of June 7, 2009 (reproduced verbatim below)?

"Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."

I remain, for the moment, on skedul, but refusing to be workinWKEND.