I had it easy in high school!

I know I'm really aging myself by bringing this up, but I graduated from high school in 1977. I have been coming to the realization people going to high school in that era had a pretty easy life with regard to being able to graduate, as compared to current students.

First off, there's the California High School Exit Exam. As the site says: "Beginning with the Class of 2006, all public school students will be required to pass the exam to earn a high school diploma." There's been all kinds of publicity about this, at least within the state, so I won't make any comments about it here. Except to say in 1977 there was nothing like that!

Here is the web site for my high school, Patrick Henry. The thing that really caught my attention here was the Portfolio and Exhibition page, which is about graduation requirements set by the San Diego City School District in addition to the state's Exit Exam. This amazes me because, like with the Exit Exam, my class was not required to do anything with any similarity to these Portfolio and Exhibition processes. But, looking through all the details via the links on this page, it occurs to me these procedures might have been a real help for me in preparing for life after high school.

A pet peeve

Please do not refer to California as "Cali."

"Cali" is a city in Columbia that is notorious for being a cocaine trafficking center. I really can't imagine anyone in California who gives it a little thought wants the state to be associated with that.

If you must abbreviate "California", why not just use the postal abbreviation: CA? Please?

Thank you, that is all. Carry on.