Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Secrets Revealed
By Sara M | Season 8 | Episode 3 | Aired on 09.28.2003
At the police station, Kevin is trying to convince Roxanne to cancel her plans with Lucy because, as he whines, "Detective Michaels wants [Kevin] to babysit and [he]'d feel better if Lucy was there to help [him]." Roxanne says that she won't cancel her night with Lucy because she wouldn't wish Det. Michaels's granddaughter on her worst enemy, let alone her "best friend." Which category does Lucy fall into again? I can't remember, it's always changing. Kevin asks what's wrong with the granddaughter. Roxanne says that she can't tell him because he hates gossip, but she will give him some advice. That advice is to keep his eyes on her at all times, as her nickname is "Houdini."
It appears to be dress-down day at the Board of Ed., as the counselor isn't exactly wearing formal work attire. Also, he's played by Cirroc Loften, who also played Jake Sisko on Deep Space Nine, and I only knew that because I checked the guest star credits. I wonder if this is stunt-casting to lure in the coveted young male science nerd demographic. Can we expect an appearance by Wil Wheaton in the near future? Jake tells Simon that, while his SATs and grades are pretty good, just passing the GED or the "CHSPE" isn't necessarily enough to go to college. RevCam points out that Simon isn't old enough to take the GED anyway, although he can take the CHSPE, which, for the benefit of the non-Californian audience, he says stands for the "California High School Proficiency Test." Shouldn't that be "exam?" California is so weird. Jake says that the CHSPE is coming up in November if Simon wants to take it. Simon says that sounds good, and asks when he can get to college if he takes it. Jake says next fall or possibly even the summer. SamVid decides that they need to use the bathroom, and RevCam takes them away. Simon stands up and tells Jake that he needs to be out of high school and into college "like, now." Jake says that the education system is one big bureaucracy and there's a lot of red tape preventing that from happening. I would say that it's less "red tape" than it is "not letting a privileged few leave high school early just because something bad happened to them." Simon asks why, if he doesn't like the system so much, Jake works in it. He says that he's a Harvard grad who couldn't get a job teaching film production to high school kids, so he got a job with the Board of Ed. because there's a bulletin board near the cafeteria with job postings that he can check to see if a film production teaching job opens up. Wow, they have their own cafeteria? My town's Board of Ed is housed in the town hall, and the closest thing to a cafeteria they have is a vending machine in the community center down the street. Also, who goes to Harvard to teach film production to high school kids?