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The Rat's reports
I’m cleaning out my junk. These include my school reports. No, I didn’t actually hang on to them for umpteen years myself; my mother did and handed them over to me to do with as I would a year or so ago. She was finally clearing out a cupboard which had stuff in it dating back to the 50s.
In order to be able to look at these reports, which date back to the third grade, I have to treat them as though they’re about someone else. They are. They concern a 7 to 17-year-old. I’m now further from that person than I was as a baby. They’re also full of errors and I’m not talking about scholastic aptitude or lack of it.
The early reports were anything but nice. I arrived in Western Australia and at the school when I was seven. I’d been at school in Malaysia for two years before that as Malaysia starts them a year earlier. Probably the first year is more like kindergarten here. The only recollection of that I have is being made to stand in the corner for some crime or other. Oh yes and I had a boyfriend named Quentin who had a screaming tantrum first day at school.
Scanning these ancient papers now makes me want to track some of the teachers down and violently disagree with them. Sometimes they thought they were funny – biology teacher praising the “improvement” of 40%. At other times they were so far off the mark that I wonder whether they had the right kid in mind. Given the duration between then and now, I would probably have to settle for dancing on their graves, if they have any.
Age 7: “Finds difficulty in adjusting to the group situation in class activities”
“Lack of concentration is largely due to an erratic behaviour pattern.”
I can’t remember this. What I can remember is being scared of them and not knowing what was expected or how to behave. I wasn’t an Australian kid, not then. I didn’t know any of the right phrases or games or kid traditions.
The reports had a section called Citizenship and Character. First was a score for Divinity [yep, church school] and then General Adjustment, which was Courtesy, Co-operation in School Discipline, Group Participation, Initiative and Completion of Work Set.
“You must try to do better” next to “courtesy”. What did I do? What did I do?!
They say I was more settled by age 8. General knowledge in social studies was an A; yep, the nascent sf fan, expert in any weird thing I happen to have latched on to. Forget the school projects, though….
They tried to teach me handcrafts and domestic science which didn’t take. Very amusing how polite they tried to be about this. They still commented on the erratic behaviour, though. I wish I could hunt ‘em down and ask what the hell they meant but would probably get shoved out to sit in the corridor for saying hell.
“Maths on the other hand means very little to her.”
Well yes, Mrs Clarke, perhaps so but I get by. I took an adult basic maths course after I left school and hammered in what you and your ilk never taught me. I didn’t do what I was told that year in your 6th grade class. The years before and after seem to have been all right after the 3rd grade. Does this tell you something, Mrs Clarke?
Age 11. “Consistently disregards instructions.” [Mrs Clarke again]
I managed not to be a robot.
Writing: “Could take a little more care.”
Doesn’t matter now. The computer/wordprocessor is my friend.
Seems I was starting to get a grip by 7th grade or just learning to give them what they wanted. I never did like being in a classroom with a bunch of kids. The kids who worked well in groups; the teacher liked them and they got the results. Be a loner who doesn’t enjoy that system and you never get their approval. You spend 12 years trying to get it but you’re never quite on the ball. They vaguely disapprove of you being “a bookworm” or “in a world of your own” because this suggests criticism of their world. Damn right. If I didn’t like it, I didn’t do it and whoo boy, Authority doesn’t like that.
They consistently criticised my powers of concentration. Hm. I can write books and stories and essays and articles. I can’t be that bad. Could the way they taught possibly have anything to do with it?
They were way off in some things, such as motives. They thought I enjoyed French and Music when I was 14 and that I was interested in Religious Studies, when the truth there was that it was so easy that you could knock it off without effort. The first two weren’t easy and I have no idea how I managed to fake any interest. The teacher in RS also forgot to remove posters which had the answers from the classroom walls.
The most common word they used about my creative expression in writing, art and drama was “interesting”. Funny, a lot of non-sf people say that to me now.
The switch to Hollywood High when I was 15 helped heaps and I dumped a lot of the “problems” I had in the previous hole. Nothing was going to help biology studies, unfortunately, but the teachers seemed more willing to regard one as a human being. Advanced age, maybe, but also a different attitude. The private school was very bound up in its own history and self-important traditions and was more like an English school of decades before. Translation to the vernacular; they were up themselves, in my humble opinion which was never asked. I’m sure I gave it anyway. I seem to have been that kind of kid.
I guess I’ll go ahead and ditch those school reports now and get on with life. I feel a whole lot better now.
Yours respectfully.
Ratfan
Author, science fiction fan, pagan, traveller, gardener and gamer.
In order to be able to look at these reports, which date back to the third grade, I have to treat them as though they’re about someone else. They are. They concern a 7 to 17-year-old. I’m now further from that person than I was as a baby. They’re also full of errors and I’m not talking about scholastic aptitude or lack of it.
The early reports were anything but nice. I arrived in Western Australia and at the school when I was seven. I’d been at school in Malaysia for two years before that as Malaysia starts them a year earlier. Probably the first year is more like kindergarten here. The only recollection of that I have is being made to stand in the corner for some crime or other. Oh yes and I had a boyfriend named Quentin who had a screaming tantrum first day at school.
Scanning these ancient papers now makes me want to track some of the teachers down and violently disagree with them. Sometimes they thought they were funny – biology teacher praising the “improvement” of 40%. At other times they were so far off the mark that I wonder whether they had the right kid in mind. Given the duration between then and now, I would probably have to settle for dancing on their graves, if they have any.
Age 7: “Finds difficulty in adjusting to the group situation in class activities”
“Lack of concentration is largely due to an erratic behaviour pattern.”
I can’t remember this. What I can remember is being scared of them and not knowing what was expected or how to behave. I wasn’t an Australian kid, not then. I didn’t know any of the right phrases or games or kid traditions.
The reports had a section called Citizenship and Character. First was a score for Divinity [yep, church school] and then General Adjustment, which was Courtesy, Co-operation in School Discipline, Group Participation, Initiative and Completion of Work Set.
“You must try to do better” next to “courtesy”. What did I do? What did I do?!
They say I was more settled by age 8. General knowledge in social studies was an A; yep, the nascent sf fan, expert in any weird thing I happen to have latched on to. Forget the school projects, though….
They tried to teach me handcrafts and domestic science which didn’t take. Very amusing how polite they tried to be about this. They still commented on the erratic behaviour, though. I wish I could hunt ‘em down and ask what the hell they meant but would probably get shoved out to sit in the corridor for saying hell.
“Maths on the other hand means very little to her.”
Well yes, Mrs Clarke, perhaps so but I get by. I took an adult basic maths course after I left school and hammered in what you and your ilk never taught me. I didn’t do what I was told that year in your 6th grade class. The years before and after seem to have been all right after the 3rd grade. Does this tell you something, Mrs Clarke?
Age 11. “Consistently disregards instructions.” [Mrs Clarke again]
I managed not to be a robot.
Writing: “Could take a little more care.”
Doesn’t matter now. The computer/wordprocessor is my friend.
Seems I was starting to get a grip by 7th grade or just learning to give them what they wanted. I never did like being in a classroom with a bunch of kids. The kids who worked well in groups; the teacher liked them and they got the results. Be a loner who doesn’t enjoy that system and you never get their approval. You spend 12 years trying to get it but you’re never quite on the ball. They vaguely disapprove of you being “a bookworm” or “in a world of your own” because this suggests criticism of their world. Damn right. If I didn’t like it, I didn’t do it and whoo boy, Authority doesn’t like that.
They consistently criticised my powers of concentration. Hm. I can write books and stories and essays and articles. I can’t be that bad. Could the way they taught possibly have anything to do with it?
They were way off in some things, such as motives. They thought I enjoyed French and Music when I was 14 and that I was interested in Religious Studies, when the truth there was that it was so easy that you could knock it off without effort. The first two weren’t easy and I have no idea how I managed to fake any interest. The teacher in RS also forgot to remove posters which had the answers from the classroom walls.
The most common word they used about my creative expression in writing, art and drama was “interesting”. Funny, a lot of non-sf people say that to me now.
The switch to Hollywood High when I was 15 helped heaps and I dumped a lot of the “problems” I had in the previous hole. Nothing was going to help biology studies, unfortunately, but the teachers seemed more willing to regard one as a human being. Advanced age, maybe, but also a different attitude. The private school was very bound up in its own history and self-important traditions and was more like an English school of decades before. Translation to the vernacular; they were up themselves, in my humble opinion which was never asked. I’m sure I gave it anyway. I seem to have been that kind of kid.
I guess I’ll go ahead and ditch those school reports now and get on with life. I feel a whole lot better now.
Yours respectfully.
Ratfan
Author, science fiction fan, pagan, traveller, gardener and gamer.
no subject