Exams for all…

If you are a student or parent of one, it’s that time of year again. June signifies the annual exam ordeal. I’m not sure who is more excited about the exams, my daughter or me. I recall the old days when I was in a similar situation. A hundred kids or so were at my old high school, nothing compared to today’s educational setup, where several schools are needed just to serve all the kids (and adults) for some communities. Exam time always meant some level of anxiety, even for the teachers. Their reputations were also at stake, and they’d slip into nail-biting mode as it came time to assess our efforts (or lack thereof).

Of course, for those whose school days are over, it’s time to harvest ducks and greater Canada geese (commonly known as the longnecks) out on the bays or anywhere that’s wet. Loons, both common and red-throated, hauntingly call out into calm waters, usually responded to by some hunter with someone strong enough to pluck the notoriously unpluckable common loon.

Back at school, however, furrowed eyebrows are a more common sight. Until, at last, the bell rings of freedom for those who finish their annual tests or rings the death toll for those still chewing on the eraser at the end of a chewed-up pencil. Well, at least it seemed like an eternity for the exam days to slip by before hitting full-time summer mode.

Ahhh, summer’s just around the corner and that means graduation parties and walking-out ceremonies melding together in festive annual rites. For me, it’s about fishing and I could go on and on about fishing, but I can see your eyes rolling around already so I’ll stick to the subject at hand… Ahh yes, exams: the final frontier…

So, when summer rolls around and you’re one of the lucky ones to get a summer job, it’s back to the daily grind, that at least pays off every two weeks. If you’re good, you get to work all summer long; and all that work earns you a direct pass to autumn. Do not pass Go – go directly to school, though you may pick up your 200 bucks for your sweaty summer efforts.

In some ways I think about how different the world is today. Kids seem to absorb technology so quickly that infants now have their own iPods to teeth on. Our little granddaughter somehow managed to drop my iPad and everything turned pink and streaky, until she managed to repair it on her own by dropping it again, and voila! The colour is normal now.

Now I wonder how a little baby would repair my new phone after dropping it in my teacup. In 16 years, she will graduate, at which point the whole iPod-tablet-anything computer will be merely a curiosity in history class. Perhaps by that time, the school will be brought to you electronically and be some sort of computer built into your home and will only let go when you do all your homework and pass all your exams. Soon…