This is so great...
I am cleaning out my mom's apartment as she is moving to skilled
nursing. A difficult week for sure, filled with decisions about almost
everything I touch and move to a storage box, trash, goodwill, for
someone special, etc. I found my old elementary school report cards.
Some of you will remember that I once wrote in here about my memories
about my childhood art experiences in school...the only art I remembered
was in 5th grade when I got in trouble for eating the cherry sours off
of the construction paper cherry trees we did for Washington's Birthday.
I was expected to take it home to show my mom how cute it was before I
ate the candy...ok. Anyway, here I am teaching art now. In elementary
school, if we had art, we certainly had no teachers specialized in art
teaching art in an art room. IT was taught by the classroom teacher,
and it was actually a subject on our report cards that received a grade.
I made mostly B's in art, one or two C's, and maybe two As, both of them
in 6th grade. What standards did those teachers use? My grade was for
a subject..
Art = B There was not a single comment on any of them...Art = C.
Period. Hahaha. I guess I showed them!!!
Of course, I was in Kindergarten in 1955. Things have changed. My
other grades were also subject name only and a grade. English B, Math
A, etc. Not a single comment on any of my elementary school report
cards. I feel so cheated!!! What was I good at? What did I need to do
better? How did they get away with this???
Linda Woods
Visit our student's web art gallery at St.John's School
www.sjs.org
click on "Stories of SJS," click on "Arts Stories," click on Linda
Woods' name. View artwork by Lower, and Middle School students as well
as our art archives.
