When one of my former colleagues asked me to assist with an ACT prep session, I figured that the best way to become familiar with the ACT again was to, well, take it. The practice one, anyways. At least the sections I was responsible for presenting.
I found that, as a high school English teacher, my ACT English score was pretty fantastic. I'm sure it would have been absolutely perfect if I hadn't been watching TV at the same time as taking the test.
And as a person who hasn't had any math since the first year of college, my ACT Mathematics score left a little to be desired. (Really, who expects us to remember the quadratic formula and how to solve equations with matrices?)
I find myself often reflecting on our system of doing things, and it sometimes annoys me both how much I am a product of our system and how much it influences my thinking. So much so that acing the English part and not acing the Math part even now, as an adult, still gives me an alternative feeling of superiority followed by shame (and then a little pride that even so, it wasn't that low). And I take a step back from the picture and...ridiculous.
Maybe, then, that's the advice I ought to take for myself and leave with the kids at some point during the session: the ACT may be your ticket to college and scholarships, but don't rely on it to define who you are.
[There it is, that intangible catch phrase--who you are. I'm not sure which is better: the clearly defined path where you just go and do the next thing and it's there--high school, ACT/SAT, college, job--or this nebulous concept of doing those things to succeed in society but paradoxically superseding them to become who you are in spite of them.]
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