Saturday, October 16, 2010

Strange Experience This Morning

Rather than sleeping in, as is my fashion on Saturdays, this morning I proctored the PSAT at school. I had about 30 high school juniors in my classroom.

Of course, I was required to read the testing instructions verbatim. At one point I told the students to write and bubble in their social security numbers in the appropriate box, and...and almost in unison, just about every student leaned over to his or her left and picked up their registration form from under the desk--because their registration forms had their social security numbers on them. Most of these high school juniors didn't know their own social security numbers.

It was just the strangest thing for me, once I understood why all these kids moved the same way all at once. Synchronized swimmers and the Rockettes couldn't have done it better.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:46 PM

    That should be the first question of the PSAT. Whoever has to get their registration form is simply asked to leave the exam. :)

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  2. too funny, I did the same thing this morning and I was surprised some of mine knew their SS number

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  3. We used Social Security numbers in College as I.D. I didn't think that they still used them in school for fear of Identity theft.

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  4. I didn't memorize mine until I was applying for jobs.

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  5. scott mccall8:41 PM

    i knew my SSN by the time i was in 4th grade. i dont know why, but i think i asked what mine was just because i heard everyone has one....i saw a pattern in the numbers, and it's stuck with me ever since.

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  6. Anonymous7:53 AM

    Why should a high school junior have the SSN memorized? At that age it's meaningless to them.

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  7. I know mine, my mother's, and my son's.

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  8. Still is a necessity from day one at the service academies, and most likely is used often at civilian universities. Tell them to memorize it asap.

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  9. I can see the same sort of sync moves with 'turn your paper over'!

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