SC LIVING
Citizens Come Together at the Standardized Tests: The Casa to Celebrate Arbor Day Times, They are a Changing GUEST OPINION: Life’s a Beach by Shelley Murphy
BY CATHERINE MANSO, SAN CLEMENTE TIMES
Will revising the SAT simplify costly test-prep and complex college admissions process?
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asa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens and the San Clemente Tree Foundation partnered Saturday, March 15 to provide the community with a day of learning, growing and fun. The Arbor Day event also gave the public a rare opportunity to enjoy the historic Casa and grounds free of charge. Booths were set up throughout the Casa’s gardens inviting attendees to explore and interact with other organizations, including OC Master Gardeners, The Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo and Shore Gardens Nursery. Exhibitors shared the common goal of raising awareness and appreciation for the value of trees and the first 100 visitors received a 15-gallon tree courtesy of Edison International. “You have to plant trees today to have a healthy urban forest 20 years from now,” said Patricia Holloway, president of the newly-formed San Clemente Tree Foundation. “We’ve got to replace our trees. We want our community to mature, look healthy and be healthy.” With the help of volunteers, Mayor Tim Brown, and a brief tutorial from Jodie Cook, Director of Gardens at the Casa, the community helped one another to properly plant a native tree. Mayor Brown said he appreciated this display because it educated the public to the possibilities of planting drought tolerant trees and native plants in their own homes during a time when residents should be conserving water. “If we just spent a little more time on our native farm, at the end of the day we wouldn’t have to use as much water, which is a real treat,” Brown said. Guest speaker, Voyteck Zakrzewski, from the Canadian Province of Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the father of Casa Executive Director Berenika Schmitz, discussed the correlation of trees, climate and the environment. “I’m very impressed. It’s Saturday,
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San Clemente Mayor Tim Brown, center, helps to plant a new tree at the Casa Romantica’s Family Arbor Day event. Photo: Catherine Manso
early morning, but so many people are here…The value of planting trees, apparently, must be a significant component of the local culture,” Zakrzewski said. San Clemente faces challenges to maintain a green environment, Zakrzewski said, but he pointed out that the responsibility does not just fall onto the city or its employees. “It’s part of an obligation to the community,” he said. “What we are witnessing today, this morning, I think is proof of this idea.” Cook also answered questions about proper tree planting, especially when dealing with a drought. “When people leave here today they are going to think of trees, and the trees in their own backyards, as ecosystems that support a whole range of organisms above ground and below,” Cook said. “We’d like them to think holistically about trees and not take them for granted.” SC
Sudoku BY MYLES MELLOR
Last week’s solution:
Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9x9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3x3 squares. To solve the puzzle, each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult. Level: Medium San Clemente Times March 20-26, 2014
n March 5, as anxious high school juniors across the country crammed for the March 8 SAT and countless high school seniors sat in limbo waiting for letters of college acceptance hinging on those SAT scores, president of the College Board, David Coleman, announced the almighty SAT will undergo its most comphrensive change since 2005. Students won’t take the revamped SAT until spring 2016 but the College Board promises to provide a sneak peek at the overhauled exam next month. Coleman said changes to the test include: reverting to its original scoring scale of 1600 from its current 2400, incorporating reading comprehension passages from “founding documents of America”—such as the Declaration of Independence—restricting calculator use on some math sections and making the essay optional. The SAT is also bidding adieu to obscure vocabulary words. The College Board plans to replace current vocabulary test words like “prevaricator” and “sagacious” with words more likely to be found in college courses or the workplace, such as “synthesis” and “empirical.” In addition, students will no longer be penalized a quarter point for wrong answers to multiple choice questions. First administered in 1926 as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (now the Scholastic Assessment Test) and based loosely on a test developed to rank World War I soldiers, the SAT changes come as it continues to lose ground to its rival—the increasingly popular ACT (American College Test). I vaguely remember wandering into my high school’s cafeteria on a Saturday morning and taking what I think was the SAT. I know I never took a test prep course. My, how times have changed. A few years ago as my older son prepared to take his college entrance exams, I bought enough test prep books to open my own bookstore. All the books claimed to significantly boost his test scores and looked really impressive lining the shelves of his bookcase—where they stayed. During his test prep process I learned the SAT is offered only seven dates a year, a fact that surprised both of us. As a result, my son took his first SAT on his birthday— the morning after prom. I didn’t need a scientific calculator to predict the outcome. As my second son starts his collegiate test preparations, I’m older but not any wiser. I confess, I’m still buying into the
test prep trap. A few months ago, I sent my son to a costly weekend boot camp to learn the “tricks” to answering the SAT’s multiple choice questions. For two days, he learned how to guess LIFE’S A BEACH the correct answer to By Shelley Murphy certain questions and when to skip questions leaving those bubbles blank. The tricks he learned won’t translate into practical life skills—unless, in the real world, he runs into tricksters who can be tamed with a No. 2 pencil. The test prep industry is big business as estimates put its earnings above the $1 billion mark in the United States. Coleman hopes to change this and said the College Board seeks to eliminate expensive and elite test prep by partnering with Khan Academy, an educational website, to offer free online SAT test prep services to students across the socioeconomic spectrum.
The tricks he learned “won’t translate into practical
life skills—unless, in the real world, he runs into tricksters who can be tamed with a No. 2 pencil.
—Shelley Murphy
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My educated guess is the multimilliondollar industry will continue to thrive as long as parents like me will pay for perceived advantages in the college admissions crapshoot. No one knows if the proposed changes to the SAT will be as beneficial as promised or if it will better measure academic intelligence and predict collegiate success. All I know is the revised SAT arrives too late to benefit my son, so I’d better find those flashcards defining “prevaricator” and “sagacious.” Shelley Murphy has lived in San Clemente with her husband and two sons for the past 14 years. She’s a freelance writer and contributor to the SC Times since 2006. SC PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to provide our readers with a wide variety of opinions from our community, the SC Times provides Guest Opinion opportunities in which selected columnists’ opinions are shared. The opinions expressed in these columns are entirely those of the columnist alone and do not reflect those of the SC Times or Picket Fence Media. If you would like to respond to this column, please email us at editorial@sanclementetimes.com
See today’s solution in next week’s issue.
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