I Followed The Yellow Brick Road

I originally had a much different subject to write about tonight but after a weird and “sad-for-me” afternoon I decided I needed to get this off my mind tonight.

After recent media attention on the importance of having access to ones official birth certificate, I decided to pull ours out to confirm the required state seal. As the five of my siblings moved out we were each given our birth certificates, a recipe card with all of our major illnesses and inoculations, and so much more of our childhood paperwork. One of the treasures I had was 12 years worth of report cards. I am certain over the years I have glanced at them but today I realized a few things that have left me feeling unsettled.

I do remember failing the Presidential Fitness Test. I was only able to complete two sit-ups in the one minute allotted and those were done with some cheating. Then there was the vision test where you signaled when you saw the red and yellow ball clearly in the vision screen and apparently in the 6th grade they also documented our height and weight. At 12 yrs old I was 56 1/2″ and weighed 60 lbs. Whaaaaaat happened to that trim svelte body? All kidding aside as per Dr. Google I should have weighed about 20 lbs. more. Now….I am an over achiever.

I always thought I was an A/B student. I did very well in my adult life, having two successful careers, first as a preschool teacher for 17 years and then managing a very large volunteer program for 25 years. People have always looked to me for assistance and often comment how resourceful and knowledgeable I am. SO I guess in my mind I was a glowing student in my earlier days. It’s not that I failed but I did have my share of C’s and there were a few D’s and one F. I will say that there was a definite improvement when we moved from the north to the south in my 10th year. (even now the South seems to have a much lower educational standards than the North)

The next thing I noticed was the large amount of missed days I had. This was consistent for most of my school years. In my earlier years several teachers even made reference to frequent absences. I do remember being teased in school and I wasn’t part of the popular group by any means. That is a pattern that has followed me through my life. I have to wonder if that was a reason for me missing so much school, I guess I blocked that part out of my memory.

As a former teacher I completed hundred’s of evaluations for young children and then in my second career for senior volunteers. I always made it a point to provide honest feedback but always ending with at least one positive comment. I can’t stop reading my 6th grade teachers Report Card Remarks. She starts by mistakenly using “effects” instead of “affects”. Then she only provides negative feedback and to add insult to injury she even spelled my name wrong. This one really stings………