Okay, so you have your child’s report card. You open the envelope and unfold. The letters or numbers don’t say much, so you go to what you know--the comments. Comments fall into several categories. First there are the generic phrases teachers write when they don‘t really have anything else to say, but do want to mark the end of a year with the child of the parents now reading. These include:
“Have a nice summer.”
“It has been a pleasure having Theodore in my class.”
“Way to go, Theodore!”
“Well done.” and the ever popular
“Good job!”
Then there are the comments that have dual meanings, one for the parent and one for the teacher:
“Betty is full of energy.” This means energy doesn’t quite cover it. It’s not necessarily a bad thing unless it is followed by,” Betty may find a yoga or tai chi class calming. Here is a rec. dept. summer schedule.”
“Tad likes to multi-task.” This means Tad is a gadfly. You took his chair away in October and he never even noticed.
“Rosie is very social. “ The next thought might be, “She talks all day long. I gave her a journal and encouraged her to sit, relax, and record her personal thoughts and feelings without any sounds involved, but she made an origami cell phone out of it instead.”
“I am concerned about Fred’s hearing.” While this sounds caring, the truth is hearing tests are done early in the year and you know Fred’s hearing is fine. He is just incredibly and unbearably loud ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!
Occasionally you hear of teachers who interject revenge comments. This, I am assuming, is cathartic and comes after many months of tongue biting, phone calls, emails, conferences and meetings. Some of these include:
“Buford is challenged daily by the structure of the classroom.”
“Buford starts with the same letter as bully.”
“Buford needs a small country to run.
Overall, if I were to write a report card for report cards it would go as follows.
The strength of the report card is that it is a form of communication among adults about a child whose welfare they all care deeply about. It may open conversations. It may make parents aware of talents or strengths they haven’t seen yet such as those related to work/study or leadership skills. This makes for positive interaction with, or at least positive feelings toward the child and his or her own school experience. The challenge a report card faces is to characterize a human being with a letter or number. Interpretation is subjective therefore flawed; you know, emotions make things so squishy. On the other hand objectivity is hard and unyielding, and the objective giver becomes nothing more than a scorekeeper. I know this report card of a report card would probably get a wide variety of responses depending on how much the reader agreed with me. That is the nature of the things.
So what’s the point? The point is, the final progress report is one of many ways to put together a picture of how your child is “doing”. There are many pieces to this changing puzzle, particularly in early childhood. Don’t take six or seven year olds grade letters or numbers as though they are the final word, final description or final judgment. Time and maturity can work miracles. My final report card comment about progress reports?
“…must try harder to work up to potential."
