My first grade report card

I found my first grade report card the other day, while looking for something else, of course. It’s a little blue booklet with my name on the cover, in perfect school-teacher penmanship, and the name of the school and the year: Gardiners Ave School, Levittown Public Schools, 1956-57.  All my “grades” were what you’d expect for me, a compliant little 6-year-old with big glasses.  I thought I would see what my teacher’s comments were, and here is what she wrote in the First Written Report:

Peggy is an intelligent little girl. She does her work well. She is interested in learning to read– has enthusiasm for all class activities.

Nothing too interesting there.  On the right side is space for the Parent’s Comment.  This is what my mother wrote on 1/9/57:

May I record a protest against this unwieldy report card and some of the sentiments expressed on the cover. The real achievements of our children in our schools surpass the cheap educational philosophy expressed there.

So now I had to go back to the cover to see what all this fuss was about. Here’s the cover text, in full:

Elementary School Philosophy

Mastery of the 3 R’s (the academic subjects) receives first consideration in our classrooms. The 3 R’s are the tools of learning and for them there is no substitute. They are mastered by application, by drill and repetition, and by careful make-up of work following absence or failure.

Good work habits, together with the ability to work and live with others, are the next orderly step toward the satisfactory life. Finally, the Arts, manual and otherwise, bring appreciation of the various combinations of beauty, color, and sound — to form the foundation for culture. Inquiry into science and trips to industry and historic sites help the child to understand the environment in which he lives.

Character and honest government, as acclaimed by famous Americans, shall be held in lofty esteem and the freedoms held paramount to the American way of life. Respect for the flag, and reverence for Almighty God are manifested daily in every classroom.

I think it was that last paragraph that probably drove my mother (god bless her!) ballistic, or at least as ballistic as anyone could be in 1957.  What a evocative description of the 1950′s this is, with a faithful trust in “character and honest government” not yet eroded by Vietnam, the U-2 incident, the Bay of Pigs invasion etc., etc.   And not a whiff of concern with a child’s self-esteem– only lofty esteem for (presumably) common values.  I suspect that elementary school report cards extoll rather different virtues now.

I can easily imagine my mother’s outrage at the references to the American way of life (she was raised in Mexico), the Almighty (she was from a secular Jewish background and we were Unitarians) and the flag.   Speaking of the flag, a mere 10 years later in high school I would be refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance to that flag, and risking school suspension for it. By then, things were SO different!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are no Teacher or Parent Comments for the Second Written Report Period, although both the teacher and my mother signed under the blank areas for comments.  By the Third Written Report I am described as having made steady progress in my work, and reading with real understanding, but there are no Parent Comments.  I think at the end of the year you got to keep your report card, so it was no longer a vehicle for my mother to express her opinions to the teachers.

On the inside of the back cover I am deemed Satisfactory in all respects: in Oral Expression (3 criteria), Social Development (12 criteria, including Claims only a fair share of time and attention, and Appears emotionally mature) and Work Habits (11 criteria, including Follows directions, and Does neat work.) I was promoted to second grade, and that report card is without either teacher or parent comments. Perhaps by then the teachers had decided not to bother telling Peggy’s mother anything at all!

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