Down Memory Lane

I had a proud moment this morning...one of many where my kids are concerned. 

My oldest son goes to the local elementary school and at the assembly this morning in the gym, was singled out for November Student of the Month!! (cue dramatic music)  One of the things I love about his school is they push the kids to achieve, and then recognize it when they do.  No coddling allowed.

Now he has always been a good student but struggled a good bit last year with his reading.  His grades were good with the last report card and to his delight, and mine, he had all A's on his progress report....Bringing two medium B's all the way up. 

The best part about all of this was he had NO idea that this was coming.  The look on his face when his name was called was absolutely priceless.  I got it on video and look forward to showing it to his kids someday, that is if the future can still view our primitive, prehistoric records.....

After I congratulated him and got back to work, I began to think about the school accomplishments that happened during the "OLDEN" days as my kids call it when I was young.

I don't remember any particular moment, shining brightly for all time, though I suppose there were a few. 

I was a good kid when I was young and a good student.  I was scared to talk back or sass the teachers because when I was little (before dirt was around) every teacher had a paddle and would light you up when you needed it.  That was worrisome enough to a young man to say nothing of what my dad would do when he found out!!!

He would send me off to school with a lunch box and a smile but every so often would shake his finger at me and say "Don't make me get a phone call today...  Cause if I do...." 

I never truly found out what he would do until I got to high school how the end of that sentence turned out....

As it happened, I did very well in the regular classes but sometimes struggled in the advanced subjects.  It turns out I struggled when I didn't feel like doing the work not because I couldn't do it.

One of my least favorite subjects was an advanced math class and while it started out fine, my grades quickly fell to sub-zero levels.  My dad had all of the meetings with the teacher, and gave assurances that he would stay after me, and so on and so forth...

My grade came up and then leveled off, came up a bit more and then started falling.  The reason I know this is because my dad requested weekly reports from Mr. O'Neil, the math teacher.  He would dutifully write down the grade, sign it with a flourish, and send me home to face the music.

When the grade started falling, I put in some serious study time, let me tell you.....

In a very short time I could have won the Nobel Prize.....for forgery....  This was a transgression to be sure, but certainly one of my most plain vanilla offenses at the very bottom of the list when I was younger.

As I recall, I squeaked by with a C in the Calc I class, the minimum to pass in those days....but probably showed an A- or B+ to dad all those years ago.

I finally told him 10 years or so ago at a family get together around the dinner table...not because of a guilty conscience...just one of those story telling moments when you shock your parents with tales of your youth.

Luckily for me, there is absolutely nothing that my boys could do that I haven't done, or thought about doing to pull the wool over somebody's eyes and stay out of trouble.....

What are some of your school stories??.................