That's me in Kindergarten. I wish I still had that shirt. O.K., perhaps a larger one. I'll bet my mom told me I looked handsome. She was kind in that way and, like most parents (myself included), she was a pathological liar, spinning yarns about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and that old parental favorite about how you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up. If that's true, then why am I a high school history teacher and not Batman?
The picture is from a book entitled "School Days" that my mom kept for me, and I would later take over. Here in Kindergarten, she indicates my friends, none of whom I remember, and the fact that I enjoyed a variety of sports.
She also wrote that my hobbies were "Art" and "Play," two things that I still very much enjoy today. Also recorded is the fact that I enjoyed playing in the wagon at school. I find this passage especially telling in that I still use a red wagon in my gardening in the spring and summer.
I attended Eastgate Elementary at that time. Due to declining enrollment and cuts in state funding it was shuttered years ago. It is now occupied by a charter school. My Kindergarten teacher was Miss Myers, and while I do not have many specific memories of my time in her care, I am confident in saying that she was an excellent teacher. I believe this to be true because those who work with very young children are a particular kind of saint. I also believe that she played a significant role in instilling in me some confidence that I hadn't previously known, as well as a love of school.
Here's my Kindergarten report card circa 1978. While the document indicates scores of "Satisfactory" in all categories (a fact I have mentioned in all subsequent job interviews), it also shows that I was deficient in certain categories. I have been given the grade S- in "follows directions," "completes work," and "listens." An S- is also used to describe my inability to relax at quiet time. My wife found these grades "interesting."
Academically I scored well. I knew how to write my name, and numbers 1 - 10. I could identify basic shapes and rhyming words. If this were today, I wonder if the State of Ohio would categorize me as being on a path to career and college readiness. I'm going to guess that the answer is No. In my defense, I think that today's Kindergarten curriculum is far more advanced, and the state would need to administer a battery of standardized tests before even allowing me to attend school.
The funny thing is, I don't remember any assessments in Kindergarten, and few in the other early grades. It was the 1970s which, looking back, seems like the Wild West of raising children.
I do remember one incident that I believe has informed my philosophy of assessments to this day. Our Kindergarten classroom was dark at the end of the day. My classmates and I had our school bags ready, and the tiny chairs up on the tiny desks. We must have been waiting for an announcement to dismiss. We were supposed to be quiet, but there was a murmur of children goofing when I started to say my ABC's. I must not have said them aloud before because Miss Myers called the attention of the class, and, to my horror, asked me to begin again. So, I nervously recited the ABC's and the class applauded.
I tell this story because as I remember it, I'm not sure that I could've recorded the alphabet in writing, or on command even, but my teacher recognized my accomplishment and my feedback was immediate. The applause was my reward and it filled me with self-confidence. The assessment was unusual, spontaneous, and so illustrates that students should be given many chances in a variety of settings to prove their knowledge. This sensibility serves me well as a teacher.
If our legislators refuse to listen to facts about the developmentally inappropriate nature of state assessments, their wildly unnecessary length, and intrusiveness on the instructional process, perhaps they might simply reflect on what tests worked for them in the simplest of settings.
If you see Miss Myers, tell her that I said thank you. I'm no Batman, but I think she did well.
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