Saturday has come again to give all the working folks, including KP, a welcome respite from the demands of the boss. Instead we get to satisfy the demands of the household, however that be configured. Here on Shelter Island we’re waiting for snow, or ice, or freezing rain, or some disturbing combination of all three. Ice is the worst, of course. It’s at its most diabolical when it is hidden under a layer of snow. But, if it’s bad enough, it will mean no school on Monday and that will be a good thing. No matter what, school will be open on Tuesday because that day of THE TEST.

Our dear mayor, who campaigns on the test results, floated the idea of testing the kindergarten, first and second grades, too. He got a lot of flack from parents and teachers over that plan and I haven’t heard anymore about it. But, there’s always next year. He also wants to pin teacher tenure to test results as well as bonuses for teachers and principals. He will then be shocked when he discovers widespread cheating and a school system devoted entirely to learning how to take THE TEST.

If you’ve paid any attention to these test scores you know that they keep rising. This is, of course, a miracle as each successive year a new group of students scores better than the previous group. How is this possible? Do we teach better each year? Are the kids taking better vitamins? The answer is that the first year the test is unknown and very hard. The miracle occurs each successive year as the test is both more familiar and easier. Oh, look how the students are improving. Strangely, when the students take the national test, as a group does every several years, they do not show this improvement.

I had a dear friend, a high school bio teacher, who said that everyone has been a student so everyone thinks he or she knows all about teaching, having been exposed to so much of it. That always makes me what to write to Bloomberg to tell him that I can run his radio station as I’ve listened to so much radio. I won’t tell him that it’s mostly radio on which Maron exposes his neuroses and insight.

The really good thing about today is that is makes us one day closer to saying goodbye to Bushco. Obama will no doubt delight and disappoint us, but Bushco will be gone and that can only be good.

Have a good one.