Did you see the "Lives" article in last Sunday’s NY Times magazine section, “Those who can't teach”? It recounted the woefully inadequate experience of a budding author trying to tutor a near 40 year old immigrant woman to pass the English section of the GED test so she could become a cosmetician.
The “tutee,” as the writer called her, repeatedly failed the essay portion of the test. Eventually, the tutor moved away. Under a new tutor the tutee passed. Here's how:
“Together they would construct a vaguely worded essay. My tutee would memorize it, and depending upon the test’s essay question, she would alter it slightly. Weeks after I moved away, she used this method, and it worked; she finally passed.”
As I read that scheme I was reminded of Gilda's experience with college French. As part of its liberal arts degree, Brooklyn College required proficiency in a foreign language. Gilda took French at Erasmus Hall High School. She passed the Regents after her junior year. She took art instead of French as a senior, not realizing she would need to take a language placement exam when she enrolled in Brooklyn College. As luck would have it, she recalled little of her French come test time. It was a mostly multiple choice exam, so Gilda fell back on a tried and true formula—answering questions in sequence, a b c d a b c d a b c d ...
She was flabbergasted when she was ranked at the second highest level. She was assigned to a French literature class. Easy enough to hide out during class but tests were in essay form. What to do?
One of her Russell House (like a sorority) sisters, a French major, volunteered to write a flawless essay for her based on the book the class had read. Gilda would memorize it. Even if it didn't exactly correspond to the teacher’s question, she was bound to get a passing grade just for form. Indeed, she copped a B in the class.
Gilda was reluctant to disclose this aberration on her stellar academic record but I assured her the statute of limitations had long passed on this transgression. Her diploma would not be rescinded. I hope.
