Should Students Take the ACT or SAT?

One of the most common questions students and their parents ask is whether students are more likely to score well on the ACT or the SAT? Some are advised to take both since there is no sure way to predict which test an individual student will do best on. But, there are some interesting opinions on this question, including those of John Katzman, founder and chairman of the Princeton Review.

John has worked with a lot of kids on the ACT and SAT, and describes his rule of thumb:

1) A student is bright but doesn’t work very hard. He or she is very verbal and loves puzzles. Suggest the SAT.

2) A student works really hard and learns a lot, but has trouble with tests. Suggest the ACT.

3) A student fits neither profile, and you need to make a quick decision. Suggest ACT if a girl and SAT if a guy.

Introducing the Crux

Last Sunday I went to church with my son and his girlfriend and Beth. They've been going to this new church this summer and they invited me to check it out. It's called the Crux. The average age was well under 30. The setup was really nice (although the AC was struggling to keep up with the heat. The music was awesome (really) and the main communicator, Daron Earlewine was one of the most gifted and thoughtful speakers I've ever head (really). Anyway, I've been a bit bored with the irrelevance of many of the things that pass for church now. That probably says as much about me as them, but this week I did something I hadn't done for a long time. I invited an 18 year old to church. I'm going again to see if the sophomore visit is as good as the freshman one and to see if my new friend will check out the Crux.

Pick Your Main Verb Carefully!

I just stumbled across a great little site that makes me think. Now that's not hard to do, but the pictures and diagrams that Jessica Hagy posts on her site Indexed are elegant.

She describes her site as "a little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math."

This is one of my favorite examples.

Irrational, Passionate, Beautiful & Human

As a child I collected rocks. Limestone, sandstone, mica, quartz - they all went in my box. All these years later I hardly remembered the difference between an igneous and a metamorphic rock. What I did remember was the single-mindedness with which I had picked through the woods behind my house, and the pure joy of finding something valuable enough to hold on to. It seemed reasonable to call this passion, and to think of myself - and everyone else - as a collection of passions. What this suggest is that it is not simply our ability to think, to be rational, that distinguishes humans from other species, but our ability to be irrational - to put stones in our pockets because we think they are beautiful.

Sue Halpern Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

Synchronicities

Synchronicities are minor miracles, little mysteries that point to a bigger one, perhaps a central one, of which we are a part. One of the prominent images in twentieth century literature is that of the wasteland, which speaks of the absence of mystery. "The wind crosses the brown land, unheard and the nymphs are departed" wrote T.S. Eliot in his poem "The Waste Land".

The primary reality of synchronicities is emotional, not intellectual. The reason they're there is to make us feel something...the feeling that our lives are rich and worth our reflection.

Maybe the most important thing synchronicities bring us is astonishment. Synchronicities are like the glimpse of a wild animal seldom seen. Far removed from the mundaneness that seems to characterize such a vast portion of daily life, they help reconnect us to our awe.

Sychronicities remind us that the world is shot through with mystery and extravagant gesture.

From Gregg Levoy's book Callings

Breach

I have always been intrigued with "why" questions more than "what" questions. Recently I've been exposed to a few things that made me rethink some of that. Last night I watched Breach - an intriguing movie about the largest security breach in US history. In one scene the dialog really got me thinking. I'd be curious to know what others think about this line of reasoning too. It's probably in part because I was betrayed a few years back and I can imagine the reasons, the whys, the rationalizations. But do they really matter?

Here's the script at the film's climax.

"She asked me this morning, why you're like this? Why you grind everyone so hard?"

"I had all the answers for her."
"He's just misunderstood"
"He's just trying to fix the Bureau and no one will listen."
"He was born in the wrong century."
"His father was a jerk."

"I got a whole list."

"But you know something SIR? At the end of the day it's all crap."

"You are who you are. Why doesn't mean a thing, does it?"

"DOES IT!?!"

Calls & Responses

The purpose of calls is to summon adherents away from their daily grinds to a new level of awareness, into a sacred frame of mind, into communion with that which is bigger than themselves.

As Martin Buber has said, "living means being addressed." A call is only a monologue. A return call, a response, creates a dialogue.

This dynamic and more open perspective is like putting on a lens through which we can see our lives as a process of calls and responses.