1965's Guide To Determining My Readiness Pt. 1

Posted by s2 | Labels: , , , , , | Posted On Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 9:17 PM

From time to time I like to turn the magnifying glass upon myself. Those who know me, know that for the most part I do not take myself at all seriously (how can I, if I don't take anyone else seriously?). I'm pretty up front with my flaws and faults and failures. My life is an open book (blog). To support this, I've dug quite a few treasures out of the old scrap book of random stuff saved by my Mom and exposed them on this blog. It's kinda carthartic in a self abusing sort of way. But honestly, this stuff is so dang funny, I can't keep it to myself, I must continue to share it with (bore) you. Actually, this stuff might not really be funny to anyone else, but that is the risk I take every time i set font to text field. I don't really care though, those who know me, also understand that I'm fairly insensitive to the humor needs of others. If it's funny to me, thats all I care about.

This episode of the 'trunk details exactly *how* I got into and through the grueling stage of life known as Kindergarten. After writing this whole thing out, it turned out to be too long, so instead of forcing the two people who actually read this into sitting through my tedious ramblings in one sitting, I have decided to break it up into two parts. Expect a *major* cliffhanger at the end of this post. If (either of) you get through this one and find the content so mundane, feel free to tap out. I certainly would.

So, I found a couple of official documents in the ol' scrap book. One is the "ABC Inventory - To Determine Kindergarten and School Readiness" pg 1 , pg2, & pg3. The other is my actual honest to goodness Kindergarten Report (pt2).

Let's start with the Readiness Inventory shall we? This item was copyrighted in 1965 by Normand Adair and George Blesch. This seems like forever ago right? 1965!, but I guess it's only 17 years old at the time of test (1982). Ugh...let's move on before I get obsessed with how long ago this was (more on this later) .... Ok, at first glance I'm immediately appalled by the sheer volume of math that goes into the overcomplicated formulas to determine if kids are ready to eat crayons and sprinkle glitter in glue. Viewing this at age 31 I'm still not quite able to get my head around my total score and *where* exactly that puts me on being "ready". Honestly, by these equations, I'm probably still not ready. Apparently my total score was 110. My "Readiness Age" is 6yrs 3mos. Does this mean, that's the age it recommends me to be before entering Kindergarten or did my test score reveal that i possessed the intellect of a child that age? Since I was 4yrs 5mos when I took the test, thats quite impressive. This last fact should actually come as no surprise to anyone. Ultimately though, I'm not sure. I'm terrible with math (more on this later too).


So I get the right-handed part. The rest...not so much.

Section 1 is actually pretty cool. It's basically an art test. Or a human test. Either way, I didn't do too bad. My "Draw-Man" (sounds like a super villain) has all of the critical pieces requisite of being identified as a person. Balloon head, sparse straight hair, beady eyes, and crooked smile. I even tossed in some three finger fork like fingers for good measure. While I didn't include an actual body, neck, opposable thumbs (overrated) or ears, I did up the ante by adding clothing. I love how Adair/Blesch included a manual for assisting with the scoring of clothing additions by the participants. What could it possibly have counseled? When my test taker learned that my "Draw-Man" was wearing an apron, was there a split second in his mind where he wasnt sure if he was going to be able to allocate all 4 points to me? Apparently "apron" was in the manual *phew*. One last point about the "Draw-Man" I see there is a point option for "other". What could that possibly mean? Does it have to be a legit feature? I could I have tossed an extra arm and got "other-points" or would it have to be something like a fancy designer moustache?


Well, *I* didn't have a manual for help taking the test.

Section II and III are pretty standard "how smart is this kid" type of questions. Actually, the more I look at it, some of these questions can be pretty subjective. For example:

Harder than it looks....

I appreciate that Adair/Blesch offer "correct" answers, even though there are more than one way to answer for ANY of those items. Or perhaps our test crafters are only concerned with how things should be. Well, any way, I prove it is possible to completely bomb certain questions and earn NO points at all:

*kssshpt* Houston...

We have a problem.


Ok, no big deal right? So I don't know which is faster - a horse or a car. So what if I didnt know what ice melted into. I could have at least received 1 point for "wet stuff" I mean, thats technically correct, right? By the way, i just love how the administrator had to include my answer in paranthesis. As if she just couldn't believe how I answered. Well, *I* can. If anyone wants to argue that ice does NOT melt into wet stuff, then you know where to find me. My address is on the front of the Assessment. You can find me on "Route #2 Marion" (Seriously, was that an address back then!? Was this test taken in 1882?! Did my phone number begin with letters in it too?!!)

The grueling examination culminated with basic shape identification and "copying". Oddly enough I got all eight points for my square (pentagonish thing). Maybe it was because I finished it in one "trial".


And this where we're gonna have to stop. For your sake. For mine. Stay tuned for more information about how....
^CLIFFHANGER!!!^
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