Final Daze

Sarah set off this morning for her FINAL exam ever in middle school. Today she has her orals. Sarah needs to present herself in front of a "commission" of teachers, including the school principal, a nun, and an objective observer from another school. She needs to be prepared to be interrogated about all she has learned over the last 3 years. Yikes!

To narrow the scope of the exam, a few weeks back Sarah submitted a thesis if you will, of a chosen theme. Sarah chose the book "The Kite Runner", by Khaled Hosseini, and with that as a start she ran a thread though all her subject matter in school. She covered the history of Afghanistan - the War on Terror - the Taliban - the Soviet invasion etc, she spilled over into the geography of the surrounding region  - Iraq - Pakistan and art and even music, of course, religion, that was a no brainer. In my humble opinion, she did a great job and her thesis was well thought out and researched. Only thing, Sarah is not a liberal and is a very patriotic young lady and her teachers tend to lean hard to the left and are a bit... well...they just hate George Bush - period. They tried to steer her away from her chosen themes and into what they wanted her to present (their view) and Sarah wouldn't have any of it. She stuck to the facts. When she wanted to talk about the Taliban, Al Qaeda and September 11th as a catalyst for the War on Terror, they wanted her to present the Israeli - Palestinian conflict from the Palestinian's side. She wanted to use the Twin Towers as an example of modern Gothic design and she was told the towers weren't relevant. This battle went on and on all spring. When she presented her thesis the first time, her teachers jumped all over her and gave her a buono - low B grade. Only upside, she was able to argue in French and that teacher played fair. He asked to explain the divide between the American and French leading up to the invasion of Iraq - and she did in fluent French. He gave her a distinto - a high B grade. He might not have agreed, but Sarah will never know. He graded her on her work, he was a professional. 

After the practice oral, Sarah was a bit down about the reaction. I told her, just give them what they want without selling yourself out. You are not running for office or responsible for defending American policies. Get in there present your work and have fun. 

This morning Sarah dressed herself neat and clean, hair pulled back and was a bundle of nerves. I know she is prepared, she knows she is prepared, but, as Sarah so cleverly pointed out, you never can predict what the teachers will ask or if they will be objective. A hard lesson to learn at such a young age.

I will let you know the results as soon as we get her final grades!

Krista