report card
For some students the words “report card” are stress inducing. I only remember being worried about my report card three times in my life: sixth grade (I was worried that I wouldn’t make the cut for middle school), the year in high school that I took geometry (my lowest grade ever), and my first semester in graduate school. Otherwise I viewed report cards as one thing: a ticket to dinner out, which was my parents’ way of rewarding us for good grades.
The other day while I was volunteering in my daughter’s classroom I saw a reminder that report cards would be coming out that day, and my heart dropped into my stomach. The intensity of my anxiety surprised me. After all it’s her report card, not mine. Besides, so far every report card has either matched or surpassed our expectations, so why was I all worked up about it?
This is perhaps the other side of the advocacy coin. As parents of special needs children we are actively involved in our childrens’ education. Besides supporting them as they do their homework, there are often extra efforts of incorporating academic ideas into every day life (we’re working on telling time, math, and reading to name a few), then there are the IEP meetings, and the constant checking in with the teacher to see if there is more we can do. With so much time and energy invested perhaps it can seem like we’re the ones being assessed.
Interestingly, I don’t think my daughter is even aware of the existence of report cards. To her it is just one more piece of paper to bring home for Mom to look at. This is as it should be, in my opinion. She has enough other sources of anxiety to contend with – everything from the air brakes on buses to how to get into the game of four square that looks like fun but she doesn’t know how to play.
Turns out we were so busy I didn’t get a chance to look at her report card until a couple of days later. Fortunately the anxiety faded into background noise compared with the immediate tasks at hand. Thankfully it was also a positive report card, with progress needed in some areas, which is to be expected, and overall satisfactory marks. I’m glad I didn’t spend any more time worrying about it.
Do report cards make you anxious? How do you react?