In the mid-1970s,
the progressive educator arrived at St. John’s grammar school in the
Bronx. Gone were the venerable old report cards with the familiar grades of A,
B, C, D, and the sorry F. In their stead were pabulum progress reports
with non-grades, if you will, ranging from the best, “Progressing very well” to
the middling, “Is progressing” to the worst, “Needs to put more effort.” Naturally,
my callow classmates and I assigned value judgments to these various
classifications, which were not intended by their creators.
These new progress
reports also included a lengthy roster of categories within such traditional
courses as English (Language Arts) and History (Social Studies). To this day, the
Language Arts classification “Uses word attack skills” leaves me cold. The term
was never explained to us by our teacher, salty old Sister Camillus, who was no
doubt clueless as well.
This noble
experiment of employing the carrot and stick, and ever-so-gently importuning us
to try harder, failed miserably. The As, Bs, Cs, and Ds eventually returned,
but not before our report cards—or whatever the heck they had become—were awash
in ones, twos, threes, and fours. If memory serves, one was the optimal grade
(or non-grade) and four the bottom of the barrel. The social experimenters
reasoned we would not be as bowled over by a four, or as boastful among our
less fortunate peers with our straight ones. But we took our “Needs to put more
effort” check marks just as hard as Cs and Ds. And although mere youths, we were
not fooled for a second by the sleight-of-hand numbers game. Despite
descriptions telling us otherwise, one signified an A; two, a B; and so on and
so forth.
These
social experiments absolutely jumped the shark in an area headlined
Personal Development, which included "religion" and "social
growth" under its umbrella. Here, even a tepid “Is progressing” was too
loaded a term for the social engineers. The top mark one could achieve in this
realm was “Usually”—a not only insipid grading word but plain wrong and a true
injustice for an individual who always cooperated in work and play, accepted
responsibility, etc. Among many lessons learned there, St. John's grammar
school taught me that the road to hell is paved with not only good intentions,
but with “Usuallys” and “Needs to put more efforts,” too.
(Photo
from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)
