A column (Day 291/365)

Spent all day rearranging the media center, moving my desk out into the main room, generally preparing for the arrival of my Promethean board in a couple of days.

Near the end of the day, I checked my Moleskine notebook and realized with horror that I had not actually written my column for the Big Ideas website over the weekend. I put many stars by it and swore to make it top of the list tonight.

So after a brief Masterworks rehearsal, I came home, put on my “contemplation” playlist in iTunes, fired up WriteRoom, and set my mind to snark mode. In an hour and a half, I had knocked out a not-too-rambling piece entitled “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?,” taking potshots at standardized testing, the privileging of logico-verbal intelligences, adult smugness about knowing “stuff,” and E. D. Hirsch.

My favorite lines? “Of course I’m smarter than a fifth grader. I outwit them every day.” And (in the riff about multiple intelligences) “I think I could beat them in kickball, but only if I didn’t actually have to run the bases.”

74 days to go.

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