Maggie has another batch of Throwback Thursday questions for us, these having to do with report cards and their evil twins, progress reports…
Looking back now, would you say you were a good, fair, or struggling student? I was a lousy student that managed somehow to get good grades.
How often were your school efforts reported to your parents? Report cards came out quarterly, but in between there were some nuns who told you to bring the test home and have it signed by a parent and bring it back the next day.
Did you receive letter grades, i.e. A, B, C, etc? In our earlier years we got E, VG, G, S, and U. Most of the rest of my school years we got the standard letter grades, but in freshman year of high school we got number grades (1-99).
Was your behavior reported on your progress reports or report cards? Oh, yeah…
In what subjects did you excel and which subjects were a challenge? Until about fifth grade, math was a problem, but after that I was a regular whiz at it. I was good in reading and spelling and grammar. Geometry in high school damn near threw me for a loop: I think on my last test I owed points.
Did you ever try to change your grade? Turning a C into a B for example? No! That would have meant certain death…
Did you keep any of your report cards? No. Why should I?
Did you get rewarded for good grades? Punished for ‘bad’ grades? Good grades meant we were allowed to live another day. None of us got any traditionally "bad" grades.
Did the subjects you excelled in prove to be where you excelled in life? School was basically 15.5 years of my life I’ll never get back.
What was your biggest detraction from your school work? I didn’t want to do it.
That’s all from my end…
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
Darn Nuns! 💜
LikeLike
Given some of the horror stories I’ve heard, I have to say that ours weren’t exactly monsters, but they were a nuisance all too often.
LikeLike
We got ours ever 6 weeks….I did pretty well….I love thinking about those. I still have a few somewhere.
LikeLike
I think Mom might have kept a few, and I don’t know what she did with them…
LikeLiked by 1 person
My sister packed a couple of mine away.
Oh John…I just saw a documentary on Route 66…I didn’t realize it went to Chicago. I thought of you when I saw it. I would love to travel down that.
LikeLike
They have a marker on Michigan Avenue near the Art Institute that shows where it used to start. There’s another marker in Santa Monica at the Pier that shows where it ends. I’ve been to both ends. It’s officially retired, but you can still follow the route. You just have to know what roads superseded it. The Wikipedia article has that information, and there are markers along the way. Plus, there’s always the song…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love that song! Thanks John…I figured you have traveled it. I never knew it went that far north. I would be fun to see some of those old motels and things.
LikeLike
A lot of them are probably gone, which is really sad. A good porton of Americana was that one road. It was legendary…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure how long ago that was…the documentary….there are some left. I don’t see how they survive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This post made me smile! You’re a good storyteller, John.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ha, love these! what a way to tell your story –
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let’s just hope Giphy doesn’t shut down…
LikeLiked by 1 person
right!
LikeLike
We got A, B, C, D, or F. Nothing more, nothing less. I was a good student but that didn’t matter in the long run. Only the boys with connections got ahead. I had no connections so I watched as mediocre students with lesser grades were rewarded while I was marginalized. Good times, not. 😏
LikeLike
Another guy from high school and I were the 25% line, one above, one below. Mom told me to apply to Northwestern and I did it thinking I wouldn’t get in. He also applied, and the both of us got in. Sometimes I think they picked the candidates that were most likely to pay…
LikeLiked by 2 people
I was a mediocre student who somehow got into a very selective college. The fact that my parents were alumni and generous donors and were prepared to pay full tuition for me had nothing to do with my acceptance.
LikeLike
All too often, it’s not what you know but who you know, and more importantly who you’re related to.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolute truth.
LikeLike
Thanks for joining in John. I remember the E, VG, G, S, and P also. In grades k- 6 that’s how we were graded. Your answers always make me laugh. What do you think turned math around for you? It seems that’s when it should have started to get more difficult.
LikeLike
Being told I was good in it. Either that, or something just clicked…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Whichever it was, I’m glad you did well.
LikeLike
Thanks for the laughs, John. You are a born storyteller. I do think I learned a lot in school, but some of it was SO boring. My daughter’s attempts at changing her grades were not as refined as your gifs. 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
We had to figure out how to do it without the benefit of YouTube or GIF’s…
LikeLiked by 2 people
True!
LikeLiked by 1 person