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#1 2005-02-13 3:38 pm
- debbiedowner
- Member
- From: Pennsylvania
- Registered: 2004-11-21
- Posts: 2149
Purple Snake
Purple Snake
-Pat Mora c. 1996
"It's in there, sleeping."
Don Luis says and winks.
He knows I want to feel
the animal asleep in a piece of wood,
like he does
turning it this way and that,
listening.
Slowly he strokes the wood,
rough and wrikled. Like his hands.
He begins to carve his way.
"Mira. Look. Its legs, its tail, its neck."
Don Luis rubs and strokes
the animal before he paints
its eyes open.
When the paint dries,
I place the puprple snake
by the green bull and red frog
that Don Luis found asleep
in a piece of wood.
The reason that I'm posting this is to share with you the fact that New York State field-tested this poem to eighth-graders throughout the state this week for the eighth grade competency test.
Do you have any idea how a class of semi-intelligent, metaphor-understanding 14-year-old students reacted to this poem (written on a 4th grade reading level)? Do you think the people who write these tests at the state level have any idea whatsoever how the typical eighth-graders' minds and hormones work! 
Last edited by debbiedowner (2005-02-14 7:06 pm)
Last edited by debbiedowner (Today 12:61 a.m.)
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#3 2005-02-13 3:43 pm
- Tria
- Minor Prophetess
- From: Madison, WI
- Registered: 2000-05-13
- Posts: 18087
Re: Purple Snake
I agree. It certainly sounds like one of those things that's inteded to be sexually suggestive.
Whoever designed the test is a moron, lol.
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#5 2005-02-13 3:57 pm
Re: Purple Snake
How long did it take to calm them down again? Did you get them focused again by the end of the period? 
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#6 2005-02-13 4:20 pm
- debbiedowner
- Member
- From: Pennsylvania
- Registered: 2004-11-21
- Posts: 2149
Re: Purple Snake
oatmeal wrote:
How long did it take to calm them down again? Did you get them focused again by the end of the period?
They're not my students. It was just reported to me by colleagues --who managed to keep straight faces (somewhat). It was, after all, an "IMPORTANT STATE-MANDATED TEST!"
Last edited by debbiedowner (Today 12:61 a.m.)
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#7 2005-02-13 4:25 pm
- agedgruel
- insert clever phrase here
- From: Great Plains, U.S.A.
- Registered: 2004-06-05
- Posts: 775
Re: Purple Snake
All I read was the subject to this thread, and I know what I was thinking.
I can imagine having a group of fourteen-year-olds reading that.
Powerful metaphors, that.
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#8 2005-02-13 4:31 pm
- debbiedowner
- Member
- From: Pennsylvania
- Registered: 2004-11-21
- Posts: 2149
Re: Purple Snake
The fact that the state chose to use it may make Pat Moro famous. This poem has earned a special place in the history of education now.
Last edited by debbiedowner (Today 12:61 a.m.)
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#9 2005-02-13 6:45 pm
- mo' ron
- PS3 4 EVA
- From: NC, USA
- Registered: 2002-10-15
- Posts: 14482
Re: Purple Snake
I actually thought this thread was going to be about a snake that was purple... maybe through genetic modification or something like that.
What is the difference between Vista and OSX?
- Microsoft employees are excited about OSX.
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#10 2005-02-13 6:55 pm
- Farmerkev
- Official Dementor
- Moderator
- Registered: 2003-01-03
- Posts: 19131
Re: Purple Snake
mo' ron wrote:
I actually thought this thread was going to be about a snake that was purple... maybe through genetic modification or something like that.
It has legs too. My guess is mutation from pollution.
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
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#12 2005-02-13 7:19 pm
Re: Purple Snake
mo' ron wrote:
I actually thought this thread was going to be about a snake that was purple... maybe through genetic modification or something like that.
Same here - I thought maybe Debbie had seen an Indigo snake - quite rare - and was asking what it was.
There are two kinds of people who keep rattlesnakes.
Those who have been bit, and those who will be bit. - Al Wolf.
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#13 2005-02-13 8:29 pm
- debbiedowner
- Member
- From: Pennsylvania
- Registered: 2004-11-21
- Posts: 2149
Re: Purple Snake
Beautiful. I would have dated a herpetologist, but I thought it would give me herpes.
Last edited by debbiedowner (Today 12:61 a.m.)
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#15 2005-02-13 9:06 pm
- petikas
- Member
- From: Cyprus
- Registered: 2000-11-12
- Posts: 3601
Re: Purple Snake
Maybe that was the whole purpose of this. Some students will just see it as a shallow sexual reference and miss the deeper meaning while the more competent ones will see both.
Just wondering.
Last edited by petikas (2005-02-13 9:07 pm)
The methods of science are manifestly effective, having made massive humanitarian contributions to society. It is this very effectiveness which the purveyors of mystical philosophies attack, because they recognise in it the chief threat to the belief-based source of their power and financial reward. -Harry Kroto, Nobel Laureate
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#16 2005-02-13 9:08 pm
Re: Purple Snake
The poem isn't even that good.
These government folk should really dig up the hippies that were a part of a poetry writing troupe I belonged to:
Barbara Sanchez wrote:
I tossed my Care
Bears away
and traded My
Little Ponies for
a pack of cigarettes.
I gave my Cookie
Monster to
the dog.
Now I'm drinking
iced caffe lattes
and snorting lines
of CNN
on my cell phone.
A Barbie hangs
from a noose
tied to my SUV's rear-
view mirror. I see my face
looking back.
Spirit was crushed; now is fading, But I want to help make things right.
Because I can see and I can feel, and you can see and you can feel
So why don't we both either stand up and fight
Or at least together we'll call it a night.
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#18 2005-02-13 10:03 pm
- mo' ron
- PS3 4 EVA
- From: NC, USA
- Registered: 2002-10-15
- Posts: 14482
Re: Purple Snake
^Does your wife know where you are?
What is the difference between Vista and OSX?
- Microsoft employees are excited about OSX.
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#19 2005-02-13 10:12 pm
Re: Purple Snake
debbiedowner wrote:
Beautiful. I would have dated a herpetologist, but I thought it would give me herpes.
Probably would have.
There are two kinds of people who keep rattlesnakes.
Those who have been bit, and those who will be bit. - Al Wolf.
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#20 2005-02-14 4:32 pm
- Fried Chicken
- Member
- From: Good question - keeps changing
- Registered: 2003-11-17
- Posts: 4564
Re: Purple Snake
This is so funny, I'll let my 14 year old hormones print this out and show it to my friends who like to make fun of the education system.
Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's right. Just because something is illegal, doesn't mean it's wrong.
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#21 2005-02-14 6:29 pm
- debbiedowner
- Member
- From: Pennsylvania
- Registered: 2004-11-21
- Posts: 2149
Re: Purple Snake
Kirk wrote:
Heh, that's a good joke, DD.
Thank you, Kirk, but even I wouldn't go so far as to say that. (My family calls me "the Queen of Bad Jokes.")
Last edited by debbiedowner (Today 12:61 a.m.)
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#22 2005-02-14 6:33 pm
Re: Purple Snake
debbiedowner wrote:
Kirk wrote:
Heh, that's a good joke, DD.
Thank you, Kirk, but even I wouldn't go so far as to say that. (My family calls me "the Queen of Bad Jokes.")
Eh, can't be that bad. The night before my wedding one of my best men nearly kicked me out of MY MOM'S HOUSE for making bad puns.
I get nervous, everything becomes a pun. What was the topper?
Mom: I can't find the cheese anywhere. Where is it? has anyone seen the provolone!?!
Me: No I haven't... that's ok, we can do without it. Just leave the prov alone.
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#23 2005-02-14 6:39 pm
Re: Purple Snake
oatmeal wrote:
The night before my wedding one of my best men nearly kicked me out of MY MOM'S HOUSE for making bad puns.
I get nervous, everything becomes a pun. What was the topper?
wat
<--
Spirit was crushed; now is fading, But I want to help make things right.
Because I can see and I can feel, and you can see and you can feel
So why don't we both either stand up and fight
Or at least together we'll call it a night.
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#24 2005-02-14 6:45 pm
- Elwood
- Proud nano owner
- From: San Fran - the Left coast
- Registered: 2004-11-14
- Posts: 397
Re: Purple Snake
Fried Chicken wrote:
This is so funny, I'll let my 14 year old hormones print this out and show it to my friends who like to make fun of the education system.
What he said...plus "Thank you untraceable speedy laser printing"
"School prepares you for the real world... Which also sucks"
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#25 2005-02-14 6:58 pm
- Fried Chicken
- Member
- From: Good question - keeps changing
- Registered: 2003-11-17
- Posts: 4564
Re: Purple Snake
Elwood wrote:
Fried Chicken wrote:
This is so funny, I'll let my 14 year old hormones print this out and show it to my friends who like to make fun of the education system.
What he said...plus "Thank you untraceable speedy laser printing"
What, it was a joke, I won't print it out...
Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's right. Just because something is illegal, doesn't mean it's wrong.
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