Though the weather is still gloriously autumnal, we’re already halfway through the first quarter of the school year. That means it is a time of assessment, when teachers take a cold and flinty look at their pupils — or a warm and indulgent look, depending — and send report cards winging through the mail and the Internet. Entirely correctly, children are held accountable — to their parents, and to teachers — for an amazing number of attributes. They are judged not merely for their innate abilities or the effort they expend, but also for orderliness, cooperation with others, efficiency, amiability, neatness and ability to get their work done on time.
So they should, you say, and I agree. But sometimes when I read through my own children’s reports, I cannot suppress the slightly uneasy feeling that if the tables were turned, I might not do nearly as well as they do on some of the intangibles.
