A good book
I just read a really terrific children’s book titled The Report Card and wanted to let you all know about it. As an unschooler, I didn’t think it went far enough but as a regular person, I thought it was pretty damn subversive.
The book is about a 5th grader named Nora who is profoundly gifted. Only she’s been keeping it to herself for the past ten or eleven years, making a special study of passing for average so she can live like “a normal kid.” One day, after seeing her best friend Stephen’s self-esteem annihilated by a poor showing on the 4th grade proficiency exam, Nora turns her attention to the subject of grades and test scores and she decides that there’s something deeply wrong with the system.
All the kids started keeping track of test score and homework grades. School was suddenly all about the competition, and grades were how you could tell the winners from the losers. Every assignment and quiz became a contest. I even saw a couple of kids cheating on a spelling test.
Then in the middle of fourth grade, three kids from our class were chosen to be in the Gifted and Talented Program. The gifted kids went to special classes. They read special books. They had a special teacher, and if they worked hard, they were moved ahead. They could even skip grades. It felt like school had turned into a big race, and it looked like the gifted kids had already won.
Which was one more reason that everyone in our class started sorting themselves out into the smart kids and the average kids and the dumb kids. And that was terrible bcause Stephen started thinking he was one of the dumb kids. It wasn’t true, not at all, not for any of the kids. But that’s how Stephen felt.
So Nora hatches a plan and the story of how that plan plays out is a terrific opportunity for the reader to start thinking critically about the nature of grades, standardized testing, giftedness and the pressure to succeed.
Now like I said, as an unschooler, the ending pro-school message wasn’t quite my thing but I think it’s absolutely appropriate for its audience of mostly schooled children. And I liked the way it talked about how teachers feel about testing, parental reaction to scores and also the way it assumed the best of most of its players. (For example, even the ingratiating school psychologist is shown to have good, if misguided, intentions.)
I also liked Nora’s snappy personality — she’s a great girl role model — and the way she saw all of what made Stephen a valuable person.
Stephen wasn’t one of the smartest kids in the class. I could see that. But Stephen was such a good worker. If he couldn’t’ do something, he was patient and he didn’t give up. … Also, when Stephan played a game, he always played fair. And the most important thing to me was that during all the time I watched him, Stephen never said or did one mean or angry thing. Not once. To anyone — even if someone was mean to him first.
I give this book an ironic A+.
Dawn
Kid’s book or grown up? or both? I am looking for stuff for Mallory- she is going into 7th grade. Any other good girl books I would love to hear. Everything I find she has already read.
My kids go to an expeditionary learning outward bound charter school. No grades, they operate on a best work, portfolio system. We still have to take standardized tests twice a year because we are a public school. We never tell the kids their scores. However after a couple of years the kids heard about the scores from kids in other schools, and they wanted to know theirs. So the school mails them home to parents now and lets them decide whether or not to tell the kids. My 5th grader knows, because she asks. The other 2 have never asked, so they have no idea.
Lisa
Oh, I would have loved that when I was growing up. Instead of reading that, when we had standardized testing, my elementary school made a huge deal out of it and spent all the days leading up to the tests how important it was that we did well. Not surprisingly, when scores came, everyone compared notes and I wound up feeling like an idiot. I’m definitely going to try to find this!
I was going to the bookstore this weekend to see if they have the new Zylpha Keatley Snyder book- now I’ll see if they have The Report Card too.
As an unschooler, I didn’t think it went far enough but as a regular person, I thought it was pretty damn subversive.
I love that! I feel that way all the time, like I see things from an unschooler’s and a “regular” person’s point of view. I pretty much keep my unschooler veiwpoint to myself unless I’m talking to other unschoolers or people who don’t have kids.