A local high school is closing down its really great German program because the director of the program is retiring and a new one can’t be found.

In reality, however, there is a new German teacher who wants to work at that school and who is passionately wanted by the school. He is a graduating student at our department, fluent in German and Spanish, a brilliant fellow who is amazing at literary analysis, and a phenomenal asset to any school. I have him in one of my courses right now, and he is simply outstanding.

The teacher in question can’t start working at the school that wants him because he keeps failing the trig and geometry portion of one of the five teacher certification tests mandated by the state. If you are planning to ask why a teacher of German needs to pass an exam in trig, please ask someone else. I’m clueless about the logic of this process.

The state is experiencing a horrible dearth of teachers but we are failing to get our students to graduate because every year there are additional teacher certification tests for students to pass. Altogether, students have to pay over $700 for these useless and ridiculous tests.

I’m not into the “down with the Big government! ” rhetoric but this is an absolutely ridiculous situation. Our department is certified by the state to award teacher certification. Why isn’t that enough to just let the graduates work in the schools that want them?

My college unanimously recommended me for tenure. Which is not that shocking if you’ve seen my CV. Of course, there are 5 more stages the process has to go through.

In other news, N gave me an hourglass for the wedding anniversary. I’m obsessed with hourglasses, in case you didn’t know. And I gave him a goblet handcrafted in the West Bank. And we went to a chic new restaurant here in town. We sat in front of this huge picture window and watched the snow. It is amazing how many times people who are in love can tell each other the same old story of how they met and hugely enjoy it. Everybody else would die of boredom a hundred times already.