The Times

The time limit for the first test was 29 minutes. The time limit for the second was 31 minutes. A girl in the front said, "What's up with the weird times?"
What's up with the weird EVERYTHING? I wanted to answer---the weird desks in rows, the weird writing prompts, the weird anxiety about whether or not a mechanical pencil can be classified as a #2, the weird distractor items that make kids hold their heads in their hands like they want to pull their hair out, the weird rules about not going to the bathroom, the weird tension I feel as I see kids moving along with confidence, unintentially skipping items right and left. What's up with the weird numbers that arrive in a few months that rank and sort human beings in supposedly scientific ways and are therefore considered more valid than all the work that kids do every day for the other 177 days of the school year?
But I didn't answer that way.
I simply smiled and said, "You may begin."
We'll save that rant for later.