I do not have a strong work ethic with respect to working for causes for which I am not involved in some decision-making process. I got a new job which starts tomorrow. It is nice for me for several reasons.
It is a full-time temporary job. I love temporary work because I get to quit legitimately at about the time when I would be walking out of any permanent job. This one lasts about five weeks, and then I can sign on for more contracts if I feel like it.
It involves industrializing the processing of subjective information. I love doing doing this. The job is grading standardized writing tests for junior-high kids. I like the notion that there are systems which attempt to numerically judge the value of partially abstract and creative output. HR told me that the nature of the writings goes everywhere, from critical thinking about a general point of debate to explanations of scientific processes. I think I will really enjoy the training for this because I was thinking on the drive back from interviewing that without considerable thought I would not be able to readily devise a method to mass train groups of people to measure writing quality, especially assuming that no obvious mistakes appear (grammar, spelling, formatting).
I need some background in children’s education. The work I do for HVTN involves editing legal documents so that they are readable at a 6-8th grade level, which is the standard when government entities communicate with the public. That corresponds with kids ages 11-13, and I neither have nor want contact with anyone that age, even though leading tours of Henry Art Gallery a few years ago was a lot of fun. Working at this job is going to give me an excellent idea of what the state expects students to be able to do for them to be able to enter high school, and therefore what the state expects anyone to be able to do in order to be able to enter contracts.
Working this job is going to help me better relate to the Indian school system. I hardly remember anything about grade school other than enjoying it while it was happening and then going to college and discovering that my life before age 18 had been unproductive. The standard in India is similar to the one here- 12 years of school, then university for many. But there are a lot of problems for the middle class. People in the upper class go to good private schools, and people in middle class seem to go to public schools and then get coaching in extra paid classes outside school. There are a lot of non-profit organizations which are committed to improving the quality of those people’s education. By this, I mean to refer to the people who are off to a good start and who want to learn, but who are just lacking some learning resources. I think that I will be able to relate to organizations like this more ably if I have a good idea of what preteens know in America.
Also I really should be working. I have been thinking that I should go to Europe and learn more art and history before I go to graduate school. I was thinking to go one week to each of Paris, Berlin, and Prague; and then end in England meeting with Kieran and Chia one more time. I need to fund this so it can happen.