So…report cards came out this week.
I have discovered a funny thing about report cards. When your kids are young, they don’t feel nervous about report cards. They don’t seem to really understand what they are, particularly if they haven’t gotten in trouble for anything recently. (The Cowboy is always a little nervous about notes from his teacher–with good reason.)
However, you, the parent, are nervous about report cards because you know exactly what they are. A report on how good of a job you are doing. And they are particularly focused on maturity and behaviors–much more so than academics. We were a bit disheartened to see that we’re only doing a Satisfactory job. We even Need Improvement in some areas.
What?!
We were glad to see that there were no concerns at all about the Ladybug’s academic progress (which was only 2 line items on her report card). And apparently we’re doing an Excellent job training a talker. We’re raising an E+ chit-chat-er. (So maybe my visions of the first female President of the United States weren’t that crazy…)
But this is quite a forceful reminder that we choose this particular school environment for our children because they don’t focus solely on academics. Sure, they expect academic excellence (I’m not kidding, either, you should see some of the minute corrections made on her seat work). But they truly believe that education is a partnership between parents and administration to develop the total character of the student, and that self-discipline and personal responsibility are the true foundation for a solid Christian life. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:16)
We’ve posted a copy of the report card on our family bulletin board (which I recently reclaimed from pizza coupon chaos) to help us all remember that while we’re encouraging our children to strive for academic Excellence, we should never become so short-sighted that we lose track of the ultimate goal. Christian Character.