O P I N I O N

BOOMER LIFE

By Annette Kurman

THEN

If you went through grammar school in the 1960s like I did, those quarterly report cards, stuffed in the 51/16x8 1/8-inch Manila-colored envelope may or may not have brought shivers every time you had to bring them home and present them to the parental unit for review and signature. Nowadays, many parents need to log into the school’s system to obtain the report card.

Incredibly, I graduated in the top 5% of my class of 1,250 (Philadelphia), but you’d never know it looking at my fourth-grade report card. And consider what we were graded on compared to what kids are being evaluated for these days, my teachers had it easy.

For some reason, I still have all my report cards. Why? Not sure. But back in the day, in Philadelphia at least, report cards were printed, and the teachers had to fill in the “As” and “Bs” and actually write (using cursive) their comments for parents. I chose this particular report card to share to demonstrate what was being evaluated back in the day as well as to examine my fourth-grade teacher’s comments (you’ll note I wrote in my own penciled comments in the blank Third Report area.

Looking at this report card from 60 years ago, I held pretty steady throughout the year; not much changed from the first report to the end of year.

We were graded on Citizenship Practices (assumes responsibility, cooperates in developing and obeying rules, respects the property of self and others, is courteous in speech and action.) Well for Citizenship, I began with a “C,” played with a “B” and “B-” and concluded the year with a “C.”  Golly, I think I’ve gone up a grade or two since then.

Then there were Work Habits (makes good use of time and materials, does neat and careful work, completes assignments.) Straight “Bs” across the school year. Ha! Nowadays, I am not as neat and careful as I should be and, depending on what’s going on, might opt for a nap instead of completing an “assignment.”

My finest school subject, it appears, was Spelling (remember, this is way before auto-correct). “A’s” straight across. (Okay, you may have spotted that A- in the second quarter.) Of course, nowadays, who needs to spell when your laptop will let you know you misspelled “accidentally” — again. (Most misspelled words in the English language here.)

After that, you can count on my earning “C’s” all year Art (Can you really evaluate one’s artistic abilities???), Health Education (Hey, I’m an RN!), Music (My sister got the music gene in our family), and Science. Handwriting also saw “C’s” for three-quarters of the year until I finally earned a “B-.” (I still, 60 years later, find it challenging to read what I scribbled down 10 minutes previous.)

Also saw “B’s” in Speaking (Whatever that was.), Reading (Really? I hated it when it was my turn to read aloud in class, I’d scrunch down in my wooden desk hoping Mrs. Bergen wouldn’t choose me.), Written Expression (makes sense. I spent half my career in writing, journalism, and public relations — and now I’m doing this!)

Another surprise, looking back 60 years, is that I received “B’s” in Physical Education. Funny, in high school I earned a “C” or “D” because I couldn’t climb up those dang ropes, do the “horse” correctly, or any of those other crazy Olympic sports that were useless to unfit high school girls. I’m glad they’ve changed that to more useful fitness activities.

Now comes the fun part: Mrs. Bergen’s comments.

First Report: “Annette has not improved very much in her behavior since talking with you. She still acts very silly. Annette could be an all “A” student if she would apply herself.”

Second Report: “Annette still has not improved in her behavior pattern.”

Third Report: For some reason, it came home blank. (Maybe she had nothing more to say) so I took my sturdy #2 pencil and wrote the comments myself: “Terrific, excellent (Misspelled with one “l”) marvelous (Also misspelled); Did I really get an “A” in spelling? This must have been done after the conclusion of the school year; don’t think Mrs. Bergen would have appreciated viewing those comments with my dad’s signature.

End of Year: “Annette has been assigned to grade 5. I hope she study [sic] the violin very hard next year.”

I think she was just glad to move me on; how many times can you write that a student acts very silly and has an unimproved “behavior pattern” all year?

NOW

The only blank report card I could find online was for Hooksett, below, and what teachers evaluate certainly goes far beyond my A, B, C, or D. Yes, these students receive an overall grade in Reading, Language Arts/Writing, and Mathematics, but are evaluated in-depth in those subjects as well as Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, Physical Education, Health, and Study Habits. Manchester has also moved to a new report card system. My how times have changed!

Amazing!

You can share your own tales of boomer life with Annette Kurman at annette.kurman@gmail.com