Crudely Wrought

Yesterday I mentioned that I recently applied to a teacher certification program at a nearby state university and was accepted. Good news. I elected to teach high school English. Bad news. I don't know what the fuck just happened to the curriculum standards. Nobody knows...

The State Board of Education's debate on new English and reading standards took another turn Friday as members approved a never-before-seen version of the lengthy document that materialized less than an hour before the board was to take a final vote.

After a terse debate on the new curriculum, the board voted 9-6 in favor of the new version, which will remain in place for the next decade and sets standards for state tests and textbooks, as well as classroom teaching.

Experts and teachers have been working on the new curriculum standards for two and a half years.

"I find it's really wild that we can work for three years on a project and then the board is so qualified they can pull it out of their [asses] overnight," said board member Pat Hardy, a Fort Worth Republican who, like other board members, received the substituted document when it was slipped under her hotel room door less than an hour before their meeting was set to convene Friday morning.

...with the exception of Chairman Don McLeroy and several other members of the Texas State Board of Education.

After first saying he would not give board members time to go over the new document during the meeting, Chairman Don McLeroy, a Republican from College Station, relented and allowed a short run through of the new document with an explanation of the changes.

But the squabbling did not end there.

"Mr. Chair you're going so fast ... you're moving so fast we can't find it in the other document," Berlanga said, shortly after the page-by-page explanation began.

After more complaints, McLeroy said that he would continue at the fast pace.

"The ruling is you're being dilatory in dragging this out," McLeroy said.

It hasn't even been a week since I got the acceptance letter in the mail and I'm already having second thoughts about teaching. Encouragement, please. Thanks in advance.