Now that my Patronization is Established, Let Me Pontificate:

It appears that sadly I am a patronizing person. According to Colin Corbett, being patronizing is necessarily bad though. His argument was, if someone really is of a lower intellectual or developmental level, it should be seen as a good thing to treat them differently than an "equal;" I'm going to disrespectfully disagree with that, although I think that there may have been some confusion regarding the definition of the word. (Is this paragraph too long? You know, in Utopia, Thomas More wrote a sentence of over 900 words. This post isn't even that long.)

Anyway, my latest fascination is with psychology and the mind. Let me introduce a compelling thought. While Freud was trying find basis for neurosis in sex, Alfred Adler sought the same explanation through the inferiority complex. Essentially, an inferiority complex results from physical inability or faulty relationships. When a person's abilities or beliefs are rejected, they develop the need to prove their worth, and thus their actions are in pursuit of validating themselves. Remarkably, it's applicable to just about everyone in some way or another. It seems kind of like the the need for social approval on an individual's level.

Speaking of inferiority, the US History AP was yesterday. I've decided that the College Board is a form of low-level terrorism. They control nearly all college related tests, and are a profit-based organization. The theory that businesses are more effective at education fails here. Compare the advanced placement program to the International Baccalauriate program. IB is way better designed as a curriculum, and it's more challenging. Lots of colleges don't even recognize IB credit for college though. AP, the inferior testing standard, is nevertheless accepted as the ubiquitous standard.

Returning to the US History AP... It was far from the worst-case scenario, but still not good. I think I did okay on the multiple choice (80 in 55 minutes). It was probably roughly on track for a 3 or 4. I pulled through on the essays (1 document-based, and 2 free-response in 1 hour 50 minutes, plus 15 minutes of mandatory reading time) pretty well. After writing 10 pages, my hand was feeling miserable. My essays were decent, probably on track for a 4. I guess I can't disclose what the questions were about, but for those of you who have taken it, the first question really scared me. I could hardly remember anything about the topic. The second one (I chose question #3) was hard in that same respect too. The third one (question #5) was great though. The only problem is that I was getting really tired by the time the third essay rolled around. I'm not sure I used enough direct factual support (as opposed to identifying trends).

They administered the test at the old Washington High School, which is now some administrative building (roughly across the Morrison Bridge on 14th). This let us quickly walk downtown to eat lunch, and spend the rest of the school day there. Leeor and I wanted to go to India House, but no one would go with us. So we followed everyone to the Cinco de Mayo thing on the waterfront. It was pretty boring and hardly Mexican at all. Only about 25% of the food stalls actually sold Mexican food. The rest of it was composed of expensive rides and advertisement booths with free advertisement paraphanelia. After some people left us to go home, I and the remaining people took the MAX to Owen's dad's office to get water. In the process we went through some blocks that probably have the highest crime rate on the entire westside; it was fun to see Meghan start getting really worried. We briefly went up to Pioneer Square and then everyone went home, except me. I went up to the library for an hour then met my mom to go home.