It's Conference Time Again
“Clark’s” first semester of school has come to an end. Seems like just yesterday that he started school and now it is report card and teacher conference time. Come this Thursday, I will have to walk into his first grade classroom and face the “older” woman that “Clark” has had a crush on and been making google eyes at for the past few months. How does a mother handle a situation like this? I must admit he does have good taste in women. His teacher is much younger and prettier than I remember my teachers being. I remember most of my teachers as being over a hundred years old and having voices like drill sergeants. His teacher is tall, slender, soft spoken and not a day over twenty five. Some of my teachers had twenty five year old shoes.
Seems like a lot of things have changed since the dark ages when I was in grade school. Not only are the teachers younger and more beautiful, now we have the famous teacher conferences. I certainly do not remember my mother having to go to school and listen to the teacher give her a report on my progress in school. The first she knew was the day I brought home my report card, a week after I was supposed to have given it to her, (that was the day that the teacher told all the class that didn’t have their report cards in the next day that she was going to call our mothers.) I don’t mind going to teachers conferences because this is where I get to hear all the things about my child that I did not know. I have always had good reports about “Clark”. Seems he is a hard worker, polite, neat and courteous. Let me say, this is not the same kid that lives at our house. We don’t have any problems with polite and courteous at home but hard working and neatest are not among his better home qualities.
Another change that I have noticed in school today is: report cards are not report cards, they are…progress reports. In these grade school progress reports they use a different code then they did in the olden days. In stead of A.B.C.D and the old dreaded F, they have O (outstanding progress) S. (satisfactory progress) and I, (improvement needed). Seems to me the kids have it a lot easier than we did when we got our report cards. I can’t imagine an “T” on a progress report looking nearly as bad as a “D” or “F” on an old fashioned report card. Going home and saying that your progress report says that you need improvement in math could not possibly be as scary as going home and saying that your report card said that you flunked math.
So as I said, come next Thursday. I will have to go to school and sit and listen to the teacher’s progress report on old “Clark”. I am not worried in the least, on his progress report the “O’s” and “S’s” have it. On the side about his social behavior every box was marked with a plus which means outstanding in behavior and study habits. With a progress report like this it leaves me only one thing to worry about…having to sit down on one of those darn first grade chairs again.
