Were you scared about school reports?

I was terrified. For some reason it really really mattered about what my teachers and parents thought. My father was strict and expected us all to do well, as if it reflected on him. He was not a pleasant man, he did whatever he pleased and could lash out unexpectedly.
Because I knew kids during primary grades who had not done well and were therefore kept back a year, I imagined that could happen to me. I got over that irrational dread by about age eight, because I'd been receiving good marks. So at that point, I think I was no longer terrified.

My mother was a broad-minded, sympathetic person who was interested in many things. I was independent in my studies, but my mother was open to helping me if I asked about something I thought she'd know about.

My father was more like yours, Rose65, sort of authoritarian, quick tempered... started both me and my brother off with plenty of physical punishment. Given how he was, I didn't like handing him my report. But in actuality, he'd briefly scrutinize it and, if some mark fell to a C, he'd just mutter "bring it up".
 

I was never scared about school grades and report cards. I liked absorbing information and my marks were always well above the average.....except for maths where I had to struggle to maintain a "C" level of grades.
But......Mom & Dad were never impressed with anything I did. They ignored my good marks and said that my mediocre maths results were typical of my substandard application of effort.
I got used to it and stopped expecting anything else from them, hence my lack of fear.
 
I have all my report cards from elementary school. Mom saved them for some reason.
None of my report cards have exemplary comments. I wasn't a great student.
Guess it started early like this 2nd grade report card. I talked too much and didn't listen.
Two(2) things though:
1) She spelled my name like a girl would spell it if her name was Jimmie
2) In 2nd grade I couldn't even read what she wrote. We didn't get cursive until 3rd grade
Bonus) Once I did learn cursive, I think I wrote neater than she did. So there's that.

XYbSGHP.jpeg
 
Besides, I can't possibly even understand how she could proclaim I didn't listen ?!?!?!
I mean lookit that picture ... I was ALL ears :ROFLMAO:
:LOL: I know I told this story here before, but in high school, I almost got detention for talking too much. Even had to go to the principal's office to find out what time I'd report. I kid you not, I *talked* my way out of detention. 🤭

1741460195164.jpeg
 
I just realized I never actually answered the question...

No, I never really worried about my report cards. As long as I wasn't failing, my mom didn't really care. She was a single mom, raising four boys on her own, so she had other things to worry about.

I will say this, though. I had to get my school records during the hiring process of my job, and I went back to my old high school.

I got sent from the main office down to the guidance councilor's office (which was weird enough), and when I told the assistant I was there for my transcripts, she spun in her chair to the computer and asked what year I graduated.

When I told her, she said, oh my, we don't keep records that old in the computer. I have to go down into the archives to get those.

Ouch.
 
No, I never worried, even though my mother was occasionally furious over bad grades (in some subjects) and the inevitable comment that, "Della day-dreams in class." We never heard of Attention Deficit Disorder back then.

One thing I learned early on was that when teachers or parents start yelling at you, you can think about something else for a few minutes and it will pass.
 
School was school. You had to go, like it or not. Had average grades. Classmates were OK, no problems there. A few fistfights on the playground but that was expected. We lived at the outskirts of town and took the bus to and from school. Lower grades, the school bus but in highschool the regular scheduled city buses.
 
I was terrified. For some reason it really really mattered about what my teachers and parents thought. My father was strict and expected us all to do well, as if it reflected on him. He was not a pleasant man, he did whatever he pleased and could lash out unexpectedly.
I still remember how he would look at my reports and pick out faults despite the fact that I was a good student and there were lots of good things said about me. Not top of the class material but I worked hard and liked studying.
I just never really pleased him. That rankled with me for years.
Such things even happen to professors. One of my teachers at university once told me: "If my father had lived to see it". Obviously his father, headmaster of a highschool, was not satisfied with his son's school reports.
 
terrified.. because my father would lash out with his fists, if marks weren't up to what he expected them to be... mainly in Maths...

My father was someone who left school at 14.. but despite that he was a good writer, and he had a mathematical brain... I didn't.. I struggled with maths... no calculators allowed in class back then, like they did when my daughter was at school... however I struggled and would only ever come close to a 50 % mark..not good eough for him.. so always a beating on report card night.. I used to hide it for as long as I could until eventually I had to show it...

didn't matter that I passed every other subject with at least 75 % and 2 exceptionally well..Social Studies and Business economics... with 90 % passes ... the fact I couldn't do as well in Maths got him enraged
Holly, this is really sad. But if you look back at your life under these bad circumstances you can be more than satisfied with your success in life.
 


Back
Top